Supporting Information

Turn-On Fluorescence Sensor for Intracellular

Imaging of Glutathione Using g-C3N4
Nanosheet-MnO2 Sandwich Nanocomposite

Xiao-Long Zhang, Cheng Zheng, Shan-Shan Guo, Juan Li*, Huang-Hao Yang* and

Guonan Chen

The Key Lab of Analysis and Detection Technology for Food Safety of the MOE,

Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Analysis and Detection Technology for Food

Safety, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou

350002 (P. R. China)

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Corresponding Author

*E-mail: hhyang@fio.org.cn.; Fax: +86 591 22866227; Tel: +86 591 22866135

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Figure S1. Fluorescence spectra of g-C3N4 nanosheets (blue) and g-C3N4-MnO2
nanocomposite (brown).
Figure S1 showed that the fluorescence optical properties of g-C3N4 nanosheets and

the g-C3N4-MnO2 nanocomposite. The g-C3N4 nanosheets solution exhibited a strong

blue emission at 438 nm. Conversely, the fluorescence was obviously quenched when

g-C3N4-MnO2 nanocomposite was formed. The very weak fluorescence of

g-C3N4-MnO2 nanocomposite could probably be attributed to energy transfer from

g-C3N4 nanosheets (as a donor) to MnO2 (as an acceptor).

Figure S2. (A) UV-vis absorption spectra of aqueous solutions of KMnO4 (black)
and MnO2 nanoparticles (red); (B) UV-vis absorption spectra of aqueous solutions of
g-C3N4 nanosheets (black) and g-C3N4-MnO2 nanocomposite (red).

As seen from Figure S2A, MnO2 nanoparticles solution exhibited a broad peak from

250 nm to 500 nm centered at 380 nm, characteristic of MnO2 nanomaterials, which

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may be an indication of the formation of the MnO2 through the redox reaction of

KMnO4 in MES buffer. The UV-vis absorption spectra of g-C3N4-MnO2

nanocomposite indicate the formation of the MnO2 deposited onto the g-C3N4

nanosheets with corresponding peaks at 380 nm (see Figure S2B).

Figure S3. Fluorescence response of g-C3N4-MnO2 nanocomposite towards BSA and

GSH. The F refers to the fluorescence intensity response of the target (GSH) or
non-target samples; the F0 refer to the fluorescence intensity response of water.
We also used bovine serum albumin (BSA) as protein samples to check whether

protein thiols can produce fluorescence. As shown in Figure S3, The g-C3N4-MnO2

nanocomposite did not exhibit a remarkable increase of fluorescence towards BSA

even at 50 mg/mL. This could be attributed to the steric factor between

nanocomposite and protein.

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Figure S4. Fluorescence response of g-C3N4-MnO2 nanocomposite towards Trx (250
µM) and GSH. The F refers to the fluorescence intensity response of the target (GSH)
or non-target samples; the F0 refer to the fluorescence intensity response of water.
It is clear from Figure S4 that Trx only caused a slight fluorescence recovery of

g-C3N4-MnO2 nanocomposite even at a 10 times higher concentration than that in

cells.

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