A simply visual and rapidly colorimetric detection of Hg2+in cosmetics based on gold nanoparticles modified by sulfadiazine

Mercury is one of the most potentially toxic metals, which is much harmful to the human health. Therefore, It is great important to detect mercury ions. In this work, proposed was a simply visual and rapidly colorimetric strategy for detection of Hg2+ based on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) modified with sulfadiazine (SDZ) and characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), UV-vis. The solution color from red to blue gray with increasing Hg2+ concentration resulted from the aggregation of AuNPs with fine anti-interference. The limit of detection (LOD) is 1.0 mu g center dot mL-1 by the naked eye, and 0.071 mu g center dot mL-1 by UV-vis spectroscopy with the good linear relationship (R2 = 0.994) indicating that AuNPs modified with sulfadiazine could be used for the quantitative determination of Hg2+. The selectivity of SDZ-AuNPs detection system for Hg2+ is much more excellent compared with other interferents in cosmetics, which exhibit this sensor could be successfully applied to detect Hg2+ in real samples.

Automated summary

In this work, a simple visual and rapid colorimetric strategy for detecting Hg2+ based on gold nanoparticles modified with sulfadiazine was proposed and characterized by TEM, DLS, XRD, and UV-vis. The color of the solution changed from red to blue gray with increasing Hg2+ concentration due to the aggregation of AuNPs with anti-interference. The LOD was 1.0 μg/mL by the naked eye and 0.071 μg/mL by UV-vis spectroscopy, with a good linear relationship (R2 = 0.994), indicating the potential use of AuNPs modified with sulfadiazine for quantitative determination of Hg2+. The SDZ-AuNPs detection system exhibited excellent selectivity for Hg2+ compared to other interferents in cosmetics, suggesting its successful application in real sample detection of Hg2+.