Yang-Rae Kim, Rakesh Kumar Mahajan, Jong Seung Kim*, Hasuck Kim*
ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 2010, 2(1), 292−295
Publication online: December 8, 2009
Publication date: January 27, 2010
DOI: 10.1021/am9006963
ISSN: 1944-8244
Journal country: United States
Publisher: AMER CHEMICAL SOC
URL: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/am9006963
Abstract: A strategy for the rational design of a novel colorimetric sensor based on dithioerythritol-modified gold nanoparticles for the selective recognition of Hg2+ in aqueous media is presented. This approach relies on the combination of gold nanoparticles with Hg2+ through sulfur−Hg2+−sulfur interaction. The gold nanoparticles showed high selectivity toward Hg2+ with binding-induced red shift in the absorption spectra, with no response to major interfering cations such as Pb2+, Cd2+, and Cu2+ in the presence of ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid. The system responds to Hg2+ with a detection limit of 100 nM and might open a new avenue for the development of Hg2+ sensing probes.