Engineering Ratiometric Persistent Luminous Sensor Arrays for Biothiols Identification.

Thiols play vital roles in mediating physiological processes. However, it is difficult to discriminate one thiol from another because of the similarities among structures and reactivities of thiols. In light of the ultralow background and impressive discrimination power, a persistent luminescence-based sensing array has attracted increasing attention but still remains a huge challenge. Herein, we have thoroughly studied the chemistry involving dual-emission persistent luminescence nanoparticles (D-PLNPs) with metal ions (MIs) and for the first time proposed an MIs-triggered ratiometric persistent luminescence (R-PersL) sensor array for the discrimination of six thiols. To extract data-rich outputs from a single sensor element, three representative D-PLNPs with a core-shell structure and subsequent carboxyl functionalizations (CSD-PLNPs) were rationally fabricated. Interestingly, MIs revealed the different regulating efficiencies for the two main emission bands of CSD-PLNPs, resulting from MI-triggered R-PersL signal transductions. Inspired by the crucial roles of thiols in vivo, a proof-of-concept sensor array through the ensemble of CSD-PLNPs-COOH and certain MIs was developed and demonstrated aR-PersL "fingerprint" pattern identification for six thiols. Remarkably, because of the autofluorescence-free background and high-throughput signal output, this sensing array system enabled a highly sensitive and differentiable detection of thiols at various concentrations in human blood serums, paving a new way to develop multiparameters sensing for complex analytes.