Aluminon functionalized silver nanoparticles for the colorimetric detection of aqueous Al(III)

Heavy metal ion contamination is a severe threat to the environment; hence, the development of methods for its trace level detection is urgently required. To contribute to this area, we report a selective and sensitive color-metric method for AM(III) detection using Aluminon functionalized silver nanoparticles. Upon the addition of Al (III) ions to the NPs solution, Aluminon silver nanoparticles (A-AgNPs) were quickly aggregated through metalligand interaction. This interaction results in color change and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak shifted from 410 to 438 nm. The FFIR, HRTEM, XPS, DLS, and zeta potential techniques further confirmed the aggregation of NPs. This method offers a wide linear range from 10 to 0.1 ppm with a detection limit of 0.001 ppm that can be easily visualized via naked eyes as well as by UV-vis spectrophotometer, Moreover, the method was found applicable to the rapid and selective detection of Al(III) ions in the real water samples.