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Visual and spectrophotometric determination of mercury(II) using silver nanoparticles modified with graphene oxide

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Abstract

The authors describe the ultrasound-assisted synthesis of a graphene oxide-silver (GO-Ag) nanocomposite for the determination of mercury(II) (Hg(II)) using spectrophotometriy. The nanocomposite was characterized by UV-visible absorption spectra, XRD, TEM and Raman analyses. The spectral and colorimetric methods were performed for the optical determination of Hg(II). The reduction of absorption intensity with blue shift in the absorption band of Ag nanoparticles and the color change of the yellow nanocomposite solution were observed during the determination of Hg(II). The limit of detection was found to be 0.59 μM. The GO-Ag nanocomposite exhibited good selectivity toward the determination of Hg(II) in the presence of higher concentration of other environmentally relevant heavy metal ions.

We developed a simple and cost effective assay for the optical determination of Hg(II) using graphene oxide-silver nanocomposite. A distinct color change is observed on addition of Hg(II). The limit of detection is 0.59 μM.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a University of Malaya Research Grant, UMRG Programme (RP007C/13AFR), Post Graduate Research Grant of University Malaya (PG074-2013B) and a High Impact Research Grant from the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia (UM.C/625/1/HIR/MOHE/05). The authors acknowledge University Malaya Flagship project (FL017-2011) and are grateful to the Synchrotron Light Research Institute, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, for the XPS measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Low Dimensional Materials Research Centre, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    An’amt Mohamed Noor, Perumal Rameshkumar & Nay Ming Huang

  2. Faculty of Earth Science, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Jeli Campus, 17600, Jeli, Kelantan, Malaysia

    An’amt Mohamed Noor

  3. Faculty of Agro Based Industry, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Jeli Campus, 17600, Jeli, Kelantan, Malaysia

    Lee Seong Wei

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  1. An’amt Mohamed Noor
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  2. Perumal Rameshkumar
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  4. Lee Seong Wei
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Correspondence to Nay Ming Huang.

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Noor, A.M., Rameshkumar, P., Huang, N.M. et al. Visual and spectrophotometric determination of mercury(II) using silver nanoparticles modified with graphene oxide. Microchim Acta 183, 597–603 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-015-1680-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-015-1680-8

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