Tannic acid-coated gold nanorod as a spectrometric probe for sensitive and selective detection of Al3+ in aqueous system

This work introduces an efficient probe for sensitive and selective detection of Al3+ based on gold nanorods (AuNRs) with tannic acid (TA) surface modification. TA, which contains five digalloyl ester groups covalently attached to a glucose core, exhibits preferential complexation and binding to Al3+, leading to the formation of side-by-side assembly of AuNRs and consequently inducing a change in the UV-vis absorbance spectra of their aqueous suspension. By increasing the Al3+ concentration to 7.4 mu M, a rapid, linear blue-shift in the longitudinal LSPR band and a decrease in its intensity are exhibited, with a 0.09 mu M limit of detection (LOD). Furthermore, the probe shows good selectivity to Al3+, along with the capability of detecting this cation in real water samples. (C) 2020 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study introduced an efficient probe for sensitive and selective detection of Al3+ based on gold nanorods with tannic acid surface modification. By inducing changes in the UV-vis absorbance spectra, Al3+ can be detected at a concentration of 7.4 mu M, with a detection limit of 0.09 mu M (LOD).