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Colorimetric determination of mercury(II) ion based on DNA-assisted amalgamation: a comparison study on gold, silver and Ag@Au Nanoplates

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Abstract

Inspired by the increasing use of plasmonic gold and silver nanoplates as probes for diverse analytes, the research community often questions which metal nanoplates should be chosen for a given application. A comparative study was performed on the performance and physicochemical properties of three types of metal nanoplates for use in plasmonic detection of Hg(II) ion. Specifically, gold, silver and Ag@Au nanoplates were studied. The established amalgamation method integrated into a detection scheme using nanoplates affords a unique yet straightforward signaling and extraction route for selective recognition of Hg(II) ion. Upon transformation of Hg(II) ion to metallic mercury, nanoplate amalgamation takes place instantly. This reshapes both the morphology and the optical characteristics of nanoplates. It is found that gold and Ag@Au nanoplates enable highly selective quantitation of Hg(II) ion by using a DNA oligomer consisting of poly-deoxycytidine (poly(C)) as a masking agent against Ag(I) ion. The silver nanoplates, in turn, display the best sensitivity owing to the chemical instability. The induced surface plasmonic shifts (of up to 250 nm and color changes from red to green) allows for determination of Hg(II) over a wide range and with a limit of detection of ~10 nM. It is recommended that the gold and Ag@Au nanoplates are used in relatively complex systems, while silver nanoplates are suited for simple matrices.

The amalgamation process integrated with metal (e.g., Au, Ag and Ag@Au) nanoplates affords plasmonic detection of Hg(II) ion with the aid of a poly(c) DNA sequence as the masking agent for Ag(I) ion.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a Natural Science Foundation of China for Young Researchers (No. 21805263) and a START-UP Fund from Ocean University of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Food Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, 5 Yushan Road, Qingdao, 266003, China

    Yao Zhang, Lan Zhang, Luyang Wang, Guoqing Wang, Makoto Komiyama & Xingguo Liang

  2. Laboratory for Marine Drugs and Bioproducts, Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao), Qingdao, 266237, China

    Guoqing Wang & Xingguo Liang

Authors
  1. Yao Zhang
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  2. Lan Zhang
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  3. Luyang Wang
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  4. Guoqing Wang
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  5. Makoto Komiyama
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  6. Xingguo Liang
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Correspondence to Guoqing Wang or Xingguo Liang.

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ESM 1

Supporting Information. Detailed synthetic protocols, additional TEM images, spectral analysis and control experimental results. (DOCX 1.75 mb)

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Zhang, Y., Zhang, L., Wang, L. et al. Colorimetric determination of mercury(II) ion based on DNA-assisted amalgamation: a comparison study on gold, silver and Ag@Au Nanoplates. Microchim Acta 186, 713 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-019-3873-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-019-3873-z

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