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Ultrasensitive and highly selective detection of strontium ions

Nature Sustainability volume 6, pages 789–796 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Strontium-90 is one of the most frequently released radioactive products in waste discharged from nuclear reactors. With a long half-life and chemical similarity to calcium, this radioisotope takes hundreds of years to decay to negligible levels and can accumulate in the food chain and bones, resulting in serious health hazards. As a result, there is growing interest in its fate and dispersion in the environment. However, the identification of 90Sr remains a challenge due to the absence of characteristic energy rays signifying its presence. Here we show a biosensor that enables the detection of Sr2+ ions in an ultrasensitive and highly selective manner. Our approach takes advantage of a fluorogenic dye, thioflavin T, which triggers the folding of DNA to form guanine-quadruplex structures. Owing to the high binding affinity of this DNA structure, on exposure to a trace amount of Sr2+ ions, thioflavin T is readily replaced, leading to attenuation of the fluorescence intensity and a detection limit of 2.11 nM. Our work could contribute to the sustainability of nuclear power by providing a technological solution to monitor the transportation of radioactive strontium pollution in the environment, a notable advance, especially after the recent Fukushima nuclear incident.

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Fig. 1: Fluorescence properties of TiG4-DNA.
Fig. 2: Applicability of TiG4-DNA for Sr2+-ion detection.
Fig. 3: Binding mechanism of TiG4-DNA with Sr2+ ions, ThT and other typical metal ions.
Fig. 4: Schematic diagram for the Sr2+-ion detection mechanism of TiG4-DNA.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundations of China (no. U1967213 awarded to N.W., no. U2167220 awarded to Y.Y. and no. 41966009 awarded to Y.Y.), the Hainan Science and Technology Major Project (ZDKJ2019013 awarded to Y.Y. and ZDKJ2020011 awarded to N.W.) and the specific research fund of The Innovation Platform for Academicians of Hainan Province (YSPTZX202214 awarded to Y.Y.).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Lijuan Feng, Hui Wang, Tingting Liu.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, Hainan University, Haikou, People’s Republic of China

    Lijuan Feng, Hui Wang, Tingting Liu, Tiantian Feng, Meng Cao, Jiacheng Zhang, Tao Liu, Yihui Yuan & Ning Wang

  2. Department of Mechanical and Construction Engineering, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

    Zhanhu Guo

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

    Costas Galiotis

Authors
  1. Lijuan Feng
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Contributions

Y.Y., N.W., L.F. and Tingting Liu. conceived the research and designed the experiments. L.F., Tingting Liu, T.F., M.C., J.Z., H.W., Tao Liu, Z.G. and C.G. carried out the experiments and analysed the data. Y.Y., N.W. and L.F. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Yihui Yuan or Ning Wang.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–8, Tables 1–4 and refs. 1–8.

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Source data

Source Data Fig. 1

Fluorescence properties of TiG4-DNA.

Source Data Fig. 2

Applicability of TiG4-DNA for Sr2+-ion detection.

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Feng, L., Wang, H., Liu, T. et al. Ultrasensitive and highly selective detection of strontium ions. Nat Sustain 6, 789–796 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01095-8

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