Highly sensitive and selective colorimetric detection of Ag(I) ion using 3,3′,5,5′,-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) as an indicator

In this paper, we report on our recent finding that Ag+ can oxidize 3,3',5,5',-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) to develop a blue color in aqueous solution, leading to a simple approach to colorimetric detection of Ag+ with a detection limit of 50 nM. Most importantly, we demonstrate its practical application to detect Ag+ in real sample. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.