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Mercuric ions induced aggregation of gold nanoparticles as investigated by localized surface plasmon resonance light scattering and dynamic light scattering techniques

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Abstract

With the development of nanosciences, both localized surface plasmon resonance light scattering (LSPR-LS) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) techniques have been widely used for quantitative purposes with high sensitivity. In this contribution, we make a comparison of the two light scattering techniques by employing gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) aggregation induced by mercuric ions. It was found that citrate-stabilized AuNPs got aggregated in aqueous medium in the presence of mercuric ions through a chelation process, resulting in greatly enhanced LSPR-LS signals and increased hydrodynamic diameter. The enhanced LSPR-LS intensity (ΔI) is proportional to the concentration of mercuric ions in the range of 0.4–2.5 μM following the linear regression equation of ΔI = −84.7+516.4c, with the correlation coefficient of 0.983 (n = 6) and the limit of determination (3σ) about 0.10 μM. On the other hand, the increased hydrodynamic diameter can be identified by the DLS signals only with a concentration of Hg2+ in the range of 1.0–2.5 μM, and a linear relationship between the average hydrodynamic diameters of the resulted aggregates and the concentration of Hg2+ can be expressed as d = −6.16 + 45.9c with the correlation coefficient of 0.994. In such case, LSPR-LS signals were further applied to the selective determination of mercuric ions in lake water samples with high sensitivity and simple operation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Wei Wang & ChengZhi Huang

  2. Education Ministry Key Laboratory on Luminescence and Real-Time Analysis, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Chun Liu, Jian Ling & ChengZhi Huang

Authors
  1. Wei Wang
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  2. Chun Liu
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  3. Jian Ling
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  4. ChengZhi Huang
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Correspondence to ChengZhi Huang.

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Wang, W., Liu, C., Ling, J. et al. Mercuric ions induced aggregation of gold nanoparticles as investigated by localized surface plasmon resonance light scattering and dynamic light scattering techniques. Sci. China Chem. 56, 806–812 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-012-4819-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-012-4819-z

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