Abstract
We describe a colorimetric assay for mercury(II) ion. It is based on a hybridization chain reaction (HCR) and the use of Fe3O4@Au nanoparticles (NPs). Aptamers specific for Hg(II) were immobilized on the surface of the Fe3O4@AuNPs. The presence of Hg(II) inhibits the HCR process and this enables less Methylene Blue (MB) to intercalate into the dsDNA structure. After magnetic separation of the DNA-loaded NPs carrying Hg(II), the change in the absorbance of the residual MB solution is measured at 663 nm. The respective calibration plot is linear in the 1 to 300 nM concentration range, with a 0.7 nM detection limit (at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3). The method displays excellent selectivity over other metal ions. It was applied to the analysis of Hg(II) in spiked river water.
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Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21301103, 21501106), the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, the Taishan Scholarship, the Shandong Province High Education Research and Development Program (J13LA08).
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Wang, L., Liu, F., Sui, N. et al. A colorimetric assay for Hg(II) based on the use of a magnetic aptamer and a hybridization chain reaction. Microchim Acta 183, 2855–2860 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-016-1932-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-016-1932-2