Novel colorimetric molecular switch based on copper(i)-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition reaction and its application for flumioxazin detection

A novel colorimetric switch based on the copper(I)-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction has been developed. G-quadruplex–hemin DNAzyme catalyzes the oxidation of 2,2′-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiozoline)-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) to form ABTS˙+, the UV absorbance of the solution increased greatly and the color of the solution changed to dark green. However, in the presence of an azide complex, the absorbance signal decreased and the solution became light green since the catalytic ability of the hemin was inhibited by the azide groups. However, once propargylamine has been added into the above reaction system, which would react with azide groups through the CuAAC reaction, the solution becomes dark green again and the absorption intensity of the system is also increased. The proposed switch allows a good reversibility and can be identified clearly by the naked eye. In addition, the method has been applied to detect some pesticides, which have alkynyl groups (flumioxazin), with high sensitivity and selectivity, where the UV absorbance has a direct linear relationship with the logarithm of flumioxazin concentrations in the range of 0.14–14 nM, and the limit of detection was 0.056 nM (S/N = 3), which can meet the requirement of the maximum residue limits (MRLs) of United States of America (56 nM).