A Portable Smart-Phone Readout Device for the Detection of Mercury Contamination Based on an Aptamer-Assay Nanosensor.
The detection of environmental mercury (Hg) contamination requires complex and expensive instruments and professional technicians. We present a simple, sensitive, and portable Hg2+detection system based on a smartphone and colorimetric aptamer nanosensor. A smartphone equipped with a light meter app was used to detect, record, and process signals from a smartphone-based microwell reader (MR S-phone), which is composed of a simple light source and a miniaturized assay platform. The colorimetric readout of the aptamer nanosensor is based on a specific interaction between the selected aptamer and Hg2+, which leads to a color change in the reaction solution due to an aggregation of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The MR S-phone-based AuNPs-aptamer colorimetric sensor system could reliably detect Hg2+in both tap water and Pearl River water samples and produced a linear colorimetric readout of Hg2+concentration in the range of 1 ng/mL-32 ng/mL with a correlation of 0.991, and a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.28 ng/mL for Hg2+. The detection could be quickly completed in only 20 min. Our novel mercury detection assay is simple, rapid, and sensitive, and it provides new strategies for the on-site detection of mercury contamination in any environment.
Department of Bioengineering, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Antibody Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China. xkevent@stu2014.jnu.edu.cn.
Wei
W
Xiao
Department of Bioengineering, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Antibody Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China. cf412xm@stu2015.jnu.edu.cn.
Meng
M
Xiao
Department of Bioengineering, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Antibody Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China. 1423221001@stu2014.jnu.edu.cn.
Qiangqiang
Q
Fu
Department of Bioengineering, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Antibody Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China. Shiting@stu2014.jnu.edu.cn.
Shiting
S
Yu
Department of Bioengineering, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Antibody Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China. alan@stu2015.jnu.edu.cn.
Haicong
H
Shen
Department of Bioengineering, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Antibody Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China. alexis@stu2015.jnu.edu.cn.
Hongfen
H
Bian
Department of Bioengineering, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Antibody Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China. tyjaq7926@163.com.|Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China. tyjaq7926@163.com.|Institute of Biotranslational Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China. tyjaq7926@163.com.
Yong
Y
Tang
D003124:Colorimetry / Q000379:methods; D057230:Limit of Detection; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry; D000068997:Smartphone; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis
D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D008628:Mercury
colorimetric aptamer nanosensor; gold nanoparticle; mercury ions; microwell reader; smartphone