Facet dependent binding and etching: Ultra-sensitive colorimetric visualization of blood uric acid by unmodified silver nanoprisms

By combination of experiments and density functional theory calculations, we present a simple but effective facet dependent binding and etching strategy for non-enzymatic and non-aggregated colorimetric sensing of blood uric acid (UA), using unmodified Ag nanoprisms as the signal readout. In the absence of UA, the triangular Ag nanoprisms are etched alongside (1 1 0) facets by H2O2 and form round nanodiscs, and a more than 160 nm surface plasmon resonance (SPR) blue shift is observed. Because of special affinity between UA and side facets of the Ag nanoprisms, pre-added UA can well protect the Ag nanoprisms from etching. Such protection effect can be used for well quantifying UA in the range of 10-3000 nM, based on the inverse proportion of the SPR blue shift with the added analyte. Due to very thin plate morphology (5 nm) and facet dependent binding/etching effects of the Ag nanoprisms, the sensing system has ultrahigh sensitivity. The detection limit is only 10 nM, which is about 2 to 4 orders of magnitude lower than that of previous colorimetric sensing systems. In addition to accurate quantitation, the proposed strategy can conveniently discriminate the patient of hyperuricemia from normal person by naked eyes. So, the present simple, low-cost and visualized UA chemosensor has great potential in the applications for point-of-care diagnostics. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.