LAUSR

A simple and selective ‘turn-on’ fluorescence sensor have been developed for the determination of xanthine (XA) based on glutathione (GSH) capped copper nanoclusters (CuNCs) as the fluorescent probe. The proposed sensor possess several advantages such as sensitivity, short analysis time and requires no sample pretreatment. The conditions for the performances of the sensor have been optimized and good linear relationship was obtained between concentration and relative fluorescence intensity in the concentration range 9.0 $$\times$$ 10 −3 M to 8.0 $$\times$$ 10 −5 M with a detection limit 6.0 $$\times$$ 10 −6 M. The mechanism behind the fluorescence enhancement may be ascribed to the binding of XA on the surface of GSH CuNCs. The sensor have been successfully applied to determine XA in spiked physiological samples.