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Old tree with new shoots: silver nanoparticles for label-free and colorimetric mercury ions detection

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Abstract

Mercury in the environment from global mercury emissions as well as various forms of contamination poses severe threats to both human health and the environment. Long-term exposure to high levels of Hg-based toxins results in serious and irreversible damage of the central nervous system and other organs. Therefore, the development of effective sensing systems for mercury detection becomes an increasing demand. In this article, a yogurt-mediated silver nanostructure is reported to be unprecedentedly used in the naked-eye and label-free detection of mercury. The method relies on the redox reaction resulting from the electrode potential difference between Ag+/Ag (0.7996 V) and Hg2+/Hg2 2+ (0.920 V) that makes colorless Hg2+ ions which oxidize colored silver nanoparticle (AgNP) to colorless Ag+. The labor-intensive modification of AgNPs and expensive labeling are avoided, and the traditional AuNPs are substituted by AgNPs in this Hg2+ ions sensing platform, which makes it facile, low-cost, and particularly useful for home, clinic, or field applications as well as resource-limited conditions. This sensing system achieves a detection limit as low as 10 nM, lower than the toxicity level of Hg2+ ions in drinking water (30 nM) defined by World Health Organization, and exhibits excellent selectivity, largely free from the matrix effect of the real water samples. This visual label-free Hg2+ ions sensing motif shows great promise for sensing Hg2+ ions in terms of sensitivity, selectivity, cost, and maneuverability. It is also a good example for the organic combination of green chemistry and functional materials, which may trigger interest in furthering biosystems for environmental science applications.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21071047), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-11-0944), the Project Sponsored by the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry of China, Excellent Youth Foundation of He’nan Scientific Committee (124100510004), the Program for Science & Technology Innovation Talents in Universities of Henan Province (2011HASTIT010), and Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT1061) for their financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Environmental Science, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, 453007, Henan, People’s Republic of China

    Shuyan Gao, Xiaoxia Jia & Yanli Chen

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  1. Shuyan Gao
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  2. Xiaoxia Jia
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  3. Yanli Chen
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Correspondence to Shuyan Gao.

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Gao, S., Jia, X. & Chen, Y. Old tree with new shoots: silver nanoparticles for label-free and colorimetric mercury ions detection. J Nanopart Res 15, 1385 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-012-1385-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-012-1385-4

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