Colorimetric sensor for Cr (VI) by oxidative etching of gold nanotetrapods at room temperature

Shengwen Wang; Yu Shi; Hao Zhang; Yufeng Sun; Fangfang Wang; Leyong Zeng; Xing Li; Aiguo Wu; Yujie Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.saa.2023.122589

Colorimetric sensor for Cr (VI) by oxidative etching of gold nanotetrapods at room temperature

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2023 Jul 5:295:122589. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2023.122589. Epub 2023 Mar 9.

Authors

Shengwen Wang¹, Yu Shi², Hao Zhang³, Yufeng Sun⁴, Fangfang Wang³, Leyong Zeng⁵, Xing Li⁶, Aiguo Wu⁷, Yujie Zhang⁸

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China; Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, CAS Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices and Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Ningbo 315201, China; Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China.
² Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, CAS Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices and Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Ningbo 315201, China; Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Diagnosis of the Ministry of Education, Chemical Biology Key Laboratory of Hebei Province, College of Chemistry & Environmental Science, Institute of Life Science and Green development, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, China.
³ School of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China; Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, CAS Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices and Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Ningbo 315201, China.
⁴ Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, CAS Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices and Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Ningbo 315201, China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Diagnosis of the Ministry of Education, Chemical Biology Key Laboratory of Hebei Province, College of Chemistry & Environmental Science, Institute of Life Science and Green development, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, China.
⁶ School of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China. Electronic address: lixing@nbu.edu.cn.
⁷ Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, CAS Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices and Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Ningbo 315201, China; Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁸ Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, CAS Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices and Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Ningbo 315201, China; Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Huizhou 516000, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: zhangyujie@nimte.ac.cn.

PMID: 36930834
DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2023.122589

Abstract

Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) is highly carcinogenic and mutagenic, which is seriously harmful to human health. Hence, it is important to create a probe that can detect Cr(VI) effectively. In this work, gold nanotetrapods (Au NTPs) were applied in colorimetric detection for the first time. Based on the oxidative etching principle of Cr(VI) on Au NTPs, a sensitive and multicolor response detection method for Cr(VI) was established. The oxidative etching of Au NTPs by Cr(VI) resulted in the blue shift of plasmon resonance absorption peak of Au NTPs with the change of morphology. As the etching progress processed, Au NTPs solution exhibited obvious color changes from gray-green to blue-violet and then to pink. This multicolor response design is very convenient for naked-eye detection. The limit of detection (LOD) of Cr(VI) is 3 nM for the naked eyes and 0.5 nM for UV-vis spectrum, both of which are lower than the toxicity level of Cr(VI) (0.2 μM) set by United States Environmental Protection Agency. This sensing method exhibits good linearity between the wavelength shift and Cr(VI) concentration in the range of 0.5 nM to 8 nM. The detection results of Cr(VI) in actual environmental samples demonstrate that the Au NTPs colorimetric probe (Au-N-Probe) is expected to be applied to the detection of Cr(VI) in water environmental samples such as lake water and industrial wastewater.

Keywords: Cr(VI) colorimetric detection; Etching mechanism; Gold nanotetrapods; Multicolor response.