Catalysis-reduction strategy for sensing inorganic and organic mercury based on gold nanoparticles.
In view of the high biotoxicity and trace concentration of mercury (Hg) in environmental water, developing simple, ultra-sensitive and highly selective method capable of simultaneous determination of various Hg species has attracted wide attention. Here, we present a novel catalysis-reduction strategy for sensing inorganic and organic mercury in aqueous solution through the cooperative effect of AuNP-catalyzed properties and the formation of gold amalgam. For the first time, a new AuNP-catalyzed-organic reaction has been discovered and directly used for sensing Hg2+, Hg22+and CH3Hg+according to the change of the amount of the catalytic product induced by the deposition of Hg atoms on the surface of AuNPs. The detection limit of Hg species is 5.0pM (1 ppt), which is 3 orders of magnitude lower than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limit value of Hg for drinking water (2 ppb). The high selectivity can be exceptionally achieved by the specific formation of gold amalgam. Moreover, the application for detecting tap water samples further demonstrates that this AuNP-based assay can be an excellent method used for sensing mercury at very low content in the environment.
State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Applications, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China; State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, China.
Xiaokun
X
Li
State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Applications, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China. Electronic address: zhangyl@ciomp.ac.cn.
Youlin
Y
Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Applications, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China.
Yulei
Y
Chang
State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Applications, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China.
Bin
B
Xue
State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Applications, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China. Electronic address: kongxg14@ciomp.ac.cn.
Xianggui
X
Kong
State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, China. Electronic address: weichen@ciac.ac.cn.
Wei
W
Chen
D002384:Catalysis; D002413:Cations, Divalent / Q000032:analysis; D060766:Drinking Water / Q000032:analysis*; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D057230:Limit of Detection; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet / Q000379:methods; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
D002413:Cations, Divalent; D060766:Drinking Water; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D006046:Gold; D008628:Mercury
AuNP catalysis; Detection; Gold nanoparticle; Mercury