C-phycocyanin from Spirulina maxima as a Green Fluorescent Probe for the Highly Selective Detection of Mercury(II) in Seafood

摘要

In this work, a highly selective and sensitive fluorimetric method has been developed for sensing mercury ions in seafood using a fluorescent probe of C-phycocyanin (C-PC) from Spirulina maxima. The interactions between C-PC and mercury ions were systematically characterized by UV-vis spectrophotometer, microscopy imaging, and fluorescence measurements. It was found that the C-PC fluorescence could be quenched by mercury ions triggering the C-PC aggregation phenomenon. Importantly, the fluorescence intensities of C-PC probes could be linearly changed depending on the concentrations of mercury ions, showing the detection limit of 0.0080 mu M, and the relative standard deviation of this method was about 1.9%. Moreover, the developed fluorimetry method was successfully applied to detect mercury ions in the real seafood samples (oysters and Pampus argenteus samples), with the acceptable rate of recovery between 93.6 and 107.2%. Such a green, efficient, and cost-effective fluorimetric method of C-PC probe should promise the wide applications for tracing mercury ions levels in seafood.