Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A colorimetric sensing platform for azodicarbonamide detection in flour based on MnO2 nanosheets oxidative system

  • Research Paper
  • Published:
Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Azodicarbonamide (ADA), as a dough conditioner food additive in flour, can be turned into toxic biurea and semicarbazide after high temperature processing. Hence, the using of ADA in food material should be strictly controlled, and the detection of ADA is very important for consumers’ safety and health. Herein, a simple and fast colorimetric strategy has been developed for ADA detection based on the MnO2 nanosheets-3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB)-glutathione (GSH) as oxidative sensing system (MnO2-TMB-GSH). Since the ADA can selectively react with GSH via oxidizing the sulfydryl (-SH) group of GSH to disulfide bond (S-S), which makes GSH unable to reduce MnO2 nanosheets and restore its oxidase-like activity. The absorbance changes of the TMB solution depended on ADA content. The MnO2-TMB-GSH colorimetric platform can detect the ADA with a linear range of 10 μmol L−1 (11.6 ppm) to 400 μmol L−1 (464 ppm), and the limit of detection (LOD) is 3.3 μmol L−1 (3.51 ppm). Some potential interferences in real sample were tested and did not affect the MnO2-TMB-GSH colorimetric platform for ADA detection. Furthermore, the sensing platform was applied for detecting ADA in real flour sample with a recovery of 96%–105% (RSD < 5%). This colorimetric method can effectively and rapidly detect ADA additives in flour less than the prescribed standard (45 mg kg−1), which shows a great potential for visualization analysis and on-site detection of ADA in flour.

Graphical abstract

A simple and fast colorimetric strategy has been developed for azodicarbonamide (ADA) detection based on the MnO2 nanosheets-3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB)-glutathione (GSH) as oxidative sensing system (MnO2-TMB-GSH).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Scheme 1
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Noonan GO, Begley TH, Diachenko GW. Semicarbazide formation in flour and bread. J Agric Food Chem. 2008;56:2064–7.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Sims GLA, Jaafar HAS. A chemical blowing agent system (CBAS) based on azodicarbonamide. J Cell Plast. 1994;30:175–88.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Ye J, Wang X-H, Sang Y-X, Liu Q. Assessment of the determination of azodicarbonamide and its decomposition product semicarbazide: investigation of variation in flour and flour products. J Agric Food Chem. 2011;59:9313–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Vlastos D, Moshou H, Epeoglou K. Evaluation of genotoxic effects of semicarbazide on cultured human lymphocytes and rat bone marrow. Food Chem Toxicol. 2010;48:209–14.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. de la Calle MB, Anklam E. Semicarbazide: occurrence in food products and state-of-the-art in analytical methods used for its determination. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2005;382:968–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Che W, Sun L, Zhang Q, Zhang D, Ye D, Tan W, et al. Application of visible/near-infrared spectroscopy in the prediction of azodicarbonamide in wheat flour. J Food Sci. 2017;82:2516–25.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Li G, Tang C, Wang Y, Yang J, Wu H, Chen G, et al. A rapid and sensitive method for semicarbazide screening in foodstuffs by HPLC with fluorescence detection. Food Anal Methods. 2015;8:1804–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Gao S, Sun L, Hui G, Wang L, Dai C, Wang J. Prediction of azodicarbonamide in flour using near-infrared spectroscopy technique. Food Anal Methods. 2016;9:2642–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Wu Y, Yu W, Yang B, Li P. Self-assembled two-dimensional gold nanoparticle film for sensitive nontargeted analysis of food additives with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Analyst. 2018;143:2363–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Chen L, Cui H, Dong Y, Guo D, He Y, Li X, et al. Simultaneous detection of azodicarbonamide and the metabolic product semicarbazide in flour by capillary electrophoresis. Food Anal Methods. 2016;9:1106–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Fang Z, Jiang B, Wu W, Xiang Z, Ouyang C, Huang T, et al. ELISA detection of semicarbazide based on a fast sample pretreatment method. Chem Commun. 2013;49:6164.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Ding B, Zheng P, Ma P, Lin J. Manganese oxide nanomaterials: synthesis, properties, and theranostic applications. Adv Mater. 2020;32:1905823.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Chen J, Meng H, Tian Y, Yang R, Du D, Li Z, et al. Recent advances in functionalized MnO2 nanosheets for biosensing and biomedicine applications. Nanoscale Horizons. 2019;4:321–38.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Zhang XL, Zheng C, Guo SS, Li J, Yang HH, Chen G. Turn-on fluorescence sensor for intracellular imaging of glutathione using g-C3N4Nanosheet-MnO2 sandwich nanocomposite. Anal Chem. 2014;86:3426–34.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Yao C, Wang J, Zheng A, Wu L, Zhang X, Liu X. A fluorescence sensing platform with the MnO2 nanosheets as an effective oxidant for glutathione detection. Sensors Actuators B Chem. 2017;252:30–6.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Zheng C, Ding L, Wu Y, Tan X, Zeng Y, Zhang X, et al. A near-infrared turn-on fluorescence probe for glutathione detection based on nanocomposites of semiconducting polymer dots and MnO2 nanosheets. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2020;412:8167–76.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Liu J, Meng L, Fei Z, Dyson PJ, Jing X, Liu X. MnO2 nanosheets as an artificial enzyme to mimic oxidase for rapid and sensitive detection of glutathione. Biosens Bioelectron. 2017;90:69–74.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Liu Y, Zhao C, Zhao W, Zhang H, Yao S, Shi Y, et al. Multi-functional MnO2-doped Fe3O4 nanoparticles as an artificial enzyme for the colorimetric detection of bacteria. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2020;412:3135–40.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Shu Y, Xu J, Chen J, Xu Q, Xiao X, Jin D, et al. Ultrasensitive electrochemical detection of H2O2 in living cells based on ultrathin MnO2 nanosheets. Sensors Actuators B Chem. 2017;252:72–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Liu X, Wang Q, Zhao H, Zhang L, Su Y, Lv Y. BSA-templated MnO2 nanoparticles as both peroxidase and oxidase mimics. Analyst. 2012;137:4552.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Wan Y, Qi P, Zhang D, Wu J, Wang Y. Manganese oxide nanowire-mediated enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Biosens Bioelectron. 2012;33:69–74.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Yan X, Song Y, Wu X, Zhu C, Su X, Du D, et al. Oxidase-mimicking activity of ultrathin MnO2 nanosheets in colorimetric assay of acetylcholinesterase activity. Nanoscale. 2017;9:2317–23.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Tan X, Li Z, Du Y, Zheng A, Zeng Y, Zhang X, et al. A MnO2 nanosheets-o-phenylenediamine oxidative system for the sensitive fluorescence determination of alkaline phosphatase activity. Anal Methods. 2018;10:5341–6.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Chen Z, Chen L, Lin L, Wu Y, Fu F. A colorimetric sensor for the visual detection of azodicarbonamide in flour based on azodicarbonamide-induced anti-aggregation of gold nanoparticles. ACS Sensors. 2018;3:2145–51.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Li Y, Wang C, Zhu Y, Zhou X, Xiang Y, He M, et al. Fully integrated graphene electronic biosensor for label-free detection of lead (II) ion based on G-quadruplex structure-switching. Biosens Bioelectron. 2017;89:758–63.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 61875159).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Luwei Zhang and Fuli Xin contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biomedical Photonics and Sensing, Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, Shaanxi, China

    Luwei Zhang & Cuiping Yao

  2. School of Food Equipment Engineering and Science, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, Shaanxi, China

    Luwei Zhang & Hong Zhao

  3. The United Innovation of Mengchao Hepatobiliary Technology Key Laboratory of Fujian Province, Mengchao Hepatobiliary Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350025, People’s Republic of China

    Fuli Xin, Zhixiong Cai & Xiaolong Zhang

Authors
  1. Luwei Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Fuli Xin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Zhixiong Cai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Hong Zhao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Xiaolong Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Cuiping Yao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xiaolong Zhang or Cuiping Yao.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

ESM 1

(DOCX 3579 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhang, L., Xin, F., Cai, Z. et al. A colorimetric sensing platform for azodicarbonamide detection in flour based on MnO2 nanosheets oxidative system. Anal Bioanal Chem 413, 4887–4894 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-021-03451-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-021-03451-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation