A highly sensitive resonance scattering based sensor using unmodified gold nanoparticles for daunomycin detection in aqueous solution

A sensitive sensor for detection of daunomycin (DNR) was developed by using free-labeled gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and DNR aptamer. In the absence of DNR, free aptamer could absorb onto the surface of AuNPs to prevent them from aggregating in high salt solution. In the presence of DNR, the aptamer was firstly exhausted due to the formation of a DNR/aptamer complex, which lead to the remarkable change of resonance scattering (RS) intensity at 550 nm. Such sensor showed high selectivity and a detection limit of 17.1 nM. Based on the advantage of the sensor, the proposed sensing method is believed to be implemented to the on-site and real-time DNR detection in food safety and other applications.