Smartphone-Based Colorimetric Detection of Chromium (VI) by Maleic Acid-Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles

Because of the significant environmental pollution produced by human activities, there is an ongoing need to develop transportable, simple, and reliable techniques for determining trace contaminants on the spot. This work reported a colorimetric detection method for aqueous Cr(VI) sensing by maleic acid-functionalized gold nanoparticles with high sensitivity and selectivity. The wine-red color of the probe solution can change to gray even in the presence of 1.0 mu g L-1 of aqueous Cr(VI). Moreover, with the assistance of a smartphone installed with a commercially available color scan application software, its concentration of could be readily quantified on the spot without the help of UV-Vis spectrometer. The detection limit could reach as low as 0.1 mu g L-1 with linear range from 0.2 to 2.0 mu g L-1. Most importantly, the coefficient variation of the proposed smartphone-based method was equivalent to that of colorimetry, demonstrating the high accuracy of the proposed method for accurate detection of Cr(VI) in resource-constrained countries. Conclusively, with the help of the smartphone, this nanomaterials-based probe demonstrated the potential in the field of environment monitoring for on-site quantitative detection of any pollutants in resource-constrained countries.

Automated summary

This study introduced a colorimetric detection method for aqueous Cr(VI) sensing with high sensitivity and selectivity. With the assistance of a smartphone, the concentration could be readily quantified on the spot, reaching a detection limit as low as 0.1 µg L-1.