Visual and spectrophotometric determination of mercury(II) using silver nanoparticles modified with graphene oxide

The authors describe the ultrasound-assisted synthesis of a graphene oxide-silver (GO-Ag) nanocomposite for the determination of mercury(II) (Hg(II)) using spectrophotometriy. The nanocomposite was characterized by UV-visible absorption spectra, XRD, TEM and Raman analyses. The spectral and colorimetric methods were performed for the optical determination of Hg(II). The reduction of absorption intensity with blue shift in the absorption band of Ag nanoparticles and the color change of the yellow nanocomposite solution were observed during the determination of Hg(II). The limit of detection was found to be 0.59 mu M. The GO-Ag nanocomposite exhibited good selectivity toward the determination of Hg(II) in the presence of higher concentration of other environmentally relevant heavy metal ions.