Simultaneous detection of mercury(II) and silver(I) ions with picomolar sensitivity

We develop a new method for the simultaneous detection of Hg2+ and Ag+ by integrating bifunctional strand displacement amplification and multiplexed short linear quencher-fluorophore probes. This method exhibits excellent specificity and high picomolar sensitivity, which is improved by up to 4 orders of magnitude compared to the current approaches for metal ion assay.