Organic nanoparticles for visual detection of spermidine and spermine in vapors and aqueous phase

Abstract

: The rapidly emerging interest in the evaluation of biogenic amines especially spermidine and spermine has brought up new demands for the efficacious technical methods. These volatile amines are abundantly present in protein containing food items and indicate the quality of food products. An optical method relying on the efficient application of Cu2+ complex of organic nanoparticles (ONPs) for the simultaneous quantification of spermidine and spermine in vapors and aqueous phase has been detailed. The method allows visual naked-eye determination as the color of the aqueous solution of ONPs−metal complex changes, respectively, upon the additions of spermidine and spermine individually. The metal complex was further quantitatively titrated for examining a linear relation of absorbance with respect to increasing concentrations of spermidine and spermine, where corresponding detection limits for both analytes were found to be 35 and 36.2 nM, respectively. Eventually, the real sample application of proposed sensor was explored using food articles (mushroom and meat), and we observed the modulation in chromogenic signals; i.e., there was a change in color of the sensor with vapors of biogenic amines emitted from food articles on storage.