The Detection of a Fluorescent Dye by Surface-Enhanced Fluorescence with the Addition of Silver Nanoparticles and Its Application for the Space Station

Abstract

Surface-enhanced fluorescence detection has large potential for detecting many chemical and biological trace analytes. This paper presents a novel method for preparing silver nanomaterials in microfluidic chip channels for the surface-enhanced fluorescence detection of fluorescent dye (SYBR Green I) molecules. Microfluidic chip channels were fabricated by a 248-nm excimer laser. Silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) were prepared inside the microfluidic chip channels by directly heating the silver precursor solution. The influence of different temperatures on the sizes of the silver nanoparticles was studied. Then, the surface-enhanced fluorescence technology based on the microfluidic system was used to detect the fluorescent dye molecules. As a result, the fluorescence signal of the fluorescent dye molecules was significantly enhanced by the silver nanoparticles. In addition, the effect of particle size on the fluorescence signal was studied. This simple and fast method is suitable for a fluorescent PCR (polymerase chain reaction) system and has good application prospects for detecting harmful microorganisms in a spacecraft.