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Analyte-triggered in situ “off–on” of Tyndall effect for smartphone-based quantitative nanosensing of Ag+ ions

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Abstract

This work describes two new colorimetric methods for smartphone-based point-of-care nanosensing of toxic Ag+ ions. They were based on the analyte-triggered in situ “off–on” of Tyndall effect (TE) of non-plasmonic colloid or plasmonic metal nanoprobes. The first TE-inspired assay (TEA) focused on the initial analytical application of precipitation reactions where a non-plasmonic AgCl colloid could be formed once mixing the analyte with a NaCl solution. Such AgCl colloid displayed strong visual TE signals after their irradiation by a laser pointer pen, which unexpectedly achieved a detection limit of ~ 400 nM. The second TEA was further designed to reduce the limit down to ~ 78 nM using the analyte’s oxidizability towards 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine molecules. The redox reaction could create positively charged products that could make negatively charged plasmonic gold nanoparticles aggregate through electrostatic interactions to remarkably amplify their TE responses. Both limits were lower than the minimum allowable Ag+ level (~ 460 nM) in drinking water issued by the World Health Organization. The satisfactory recovery results for detecting Ag+ ions in river, pond, tap, and drinking water additionally demonstrated good selectivity, accuracy and practicality of the proposed methods for potential point-of-need uses in environmental analysis, public health, water safety, etc.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21874032, 21765007 and 21765005), Guangxi Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (No. 2018GXNSFFA281002), and Central Government-Guided Local Science and Technology Development Project (No. GuikeZY20198006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangxi Key Laboratory of Electrochemical and Magnetochemical Function Materials, College of Chemistry and Bioengineering, Guilin University of Technology, 12 Jiangan Road, Guilin, 541004, People’s Republic of China

    Miao Hu, Wencheng Xiao, Yijing Chen, Qing He, Kaijing Yuan, Xueer Huang, Wenying Jin, Jinfang Nie & Yun Zhang

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  1. Miao Hu
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  2. Wencheng Xiao
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  3. Yijing Chen
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Correspondence to Wenying Jin, Jinfang Nie or Yun Zhang.

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Hu, M., Xiao, W., Chen, Y. et al. Analyte-triggered in situ “off–on” of Tyndall effect for smartphone-based quantitative nanosensing of Ag+ ions. Photochem Photobiol Sci 22, 631–640 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43630-022-00341-w

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