Determination of spermine and spermidine in meat with a ratiometric fluorescence nanoprobe and a combinational logic gate

A ratiometric fluorescent nanoprobe is developed with a wide color variation for visual determination of spermine (SP) and spermidine (SD) in meat samples. The green emission provided from the combination of yellow emissive quantum dots and blue emissive carbon dots turns into pink when SP or SD are present. The results show that the developed sensor has good linearity in the range of 0.5-10 and 0.5-80 µM for SP and SD and suitable detection limits were achieved including 0.2 and 2.1 µM for SP and SD. The probe was highly selective in the presence of amino acids and other biogenic amines. RGB indices were extracted to build a combinational logic gate for visual and simultaneous detection of SP and SD. The dual functional logic gate was easy to design and convenient to operate. Finally, a portable sensor was fabricated for visual, rapid and on-site assessment of meat freshness.