Portable mercury sensor for tap water using surface plasmon resonance of immobilized gold nanorods

Emily C Heider; Khang Trieu; Anthony F T Moore; Andres D Campiglia

doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2012.05.037

Portable mercury sensor for tap water using surface plasmon resonance of immobilized gold nanorods

Talanta. 2012 Sep 15:99:180-5. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2012.05.037. Epub 2012 May 26.

Authors

Emily C Heider¹, Khang Trieu, Anthony F T Moore, Andres D Campiglia

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemistry, University of Central Florida, P.O. Box 25000, Orlando, Florida 32816-2366, USA. Emily.Heider@ucf.edu

PMID: 22967539
DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2012.05.037

Abstract

The surface plasmon resonance of surface immobilized gold nanorods (Au NRs) was used to quantify mercury in tap water. Glass substrates were chemically functionalized with (3-mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane, which chemically bound the nanorods to produce a portable and sensitive mercury sensor. The analytical capabilities of the sensor were measured using micromolar mercury concentrations. Since the analytical response was dependent upon number of nanorods present, the limit of detection was 2.28×10(-19) M mercury per nanorod. The possibility to using glass substrates with immobilized Au NRs is a significant step towards the analysis of mercury in tap water flows at this low concentration level.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.