Visual Detection and Sensing of Mercury Ions and Glutathione Using Fluorescent Copper Nanoclusters

Visual detection of mercury ions and glutathione is of great significance to public health and environmental issues. Herein, we developed a fluorescent sensor (l-Cys/CuNCs@ESM) based on the eggshell membrane (ESM) and red-emitting copper nanoclusters (CuNCs) by the in situ strategy via l-cysteine (l-Cys) as the reducing and protective agent for mercury ions and glutathione sensing visually. The as-prepared fluorescent product had good stability, portability, large Stokes shift (250 nm), and long fluorescence lifetime (7.3 μs). Notably, the l-Cys/CuNCs@ESM exhibited a specific fluorescence quenching response toward Hg²⁺. Moreover, the interaction between glutathione (GSH) and Hg²⁺ could subsequently recover the fluorescence effectively. Inspired by this “on-off-on” switch, the l-Cys/CuNCs@ESM was applied as the dual-sensing system for visual detection of mercury ions and glutathione integrating with the portable smartphone. The limit of detection (LOD) of Hg²⁺ is 1.1 μM for visualization and 0.52 μM for the fluorescence spectrometer. The corresponding LODs of GSH are 2.8 and 0.59 μM, respectively. This platform presents significant sensitivity, specificity, and stability, offering a promising potential for real-time/on-site sensing.