Fluorescence quenching mediated detection of hydrogen peroxide using tungsten incorporated graphitic carbon nitride nanoflakes.

A reliable, non-enzymatic detection for H 2 O 2 with high sensitivity and accuracy is of profound importance and getting considerable interest due to its usefulness in biological systems. Therefore, this work was aimed to develop a sensitive method for the detection of H 2 O 2 using rhodamine B as a fluorescence system and tungsten doped graphitic carbon nitride (W/GCN) as catalysts. Fluorescence quenching and colorimetric properties of the chromogenic-dye probe were used as a detection strategy of H 2 O 2 . The enhanced catalytic property of nanoflakes of W/GCN was attributed to the unique structural characteristics, influenced by the dopant, that not only tuned its bandgap but also enhanced separation of electron-hole pairs as compared to planar and larger sized nanosheets of pristine GCN. This low-cost and rapid assay offered a very low limit of detection of 8 nM for the fluorescence quenching method and 20 nM for the colorimetric method. The linear range for fluorescence quenching and colorimetric H 2 O 2 assays were from 10-500 nM and 35-400 nM, respectively. Therefore, this novel method of using W/GCN nanoflakes in fluorescence quenching and colorimetric based detections of H 2 O 2 is expected to catch more interest on the topic of using non-enzymatic platforms for sensitive and selective detection of different analysts.