Localized surface plasmon resonance sensing detection of glucose in the serum samples of diabetes sufferers based on the redox reaction of chlorauric acid

In this paper, the formation of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) as a result of the thermo-active redox reaction of chlorauric acid (HAuCl4) and glucose in alkaline medium was identified by measuring the plasmon resonance absorption, localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images, for the formation of Au NPs displays characteristic plasmon resonance absorption bands and corresponding LSPR signals. It was found that the resulted LSPR signals could be easily detected with a common spectrofluorometer. With increasing glucose concentration, the LSPR intensity displays linear response with the glucose content over the range from 2.0 to 250.0 μmol l−1. Thus, a novel assay of glucose was established with the limits of determination (3σ) being 0.21 μmol l−1, and the detection of glucose could be made easily in the serum samples of diabetes sufferers. Mechanism investigations showed that the activation energy and molar ratio of the reaction were 34.8 kJ mol−1 and 3:2, respectively.