High-Sensitivity Detection of Iron(III) by Dopamine-Modified Funnel-Shaped Nanochannels

Bo Niu; Kai Xiao; Xiaodong Huang; Zhen Zhang; Xiang-Yu Kong; Ziqi Wang; Liping Wen; Lei Jiang

doi:10.1021/acsami.8b05686

High-Sensitivity Detection of Iron(III) by Dopamine-Modified Funnel-Shaped Nanochannels

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2018 Jul 5;10(26):22632-22639. doi: 10.1021/acsami.8b05686. Epub 2018 Jun 21.

Authors

Bo Niu^{1

2}, Kai Xiao¹, Xiaodong Huang¹, Zhen Zhang¹, Xiang-Yu Kong¹, Ziqi Wang¹, Liping Wen^{1

2}, Lei Jiang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Bio-inspired Materials and Interfacial Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry , Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190 , P. R. China.
² School of Future Technology , University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049 , P. R. China.

PMID: 29888900
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b05686

Abstract

Iron as an essential trace element in the human body participates in various biological processes. The demand for efficient and sensitive detection of Fe^III has drawn wide attentions. Inspired by biological nanochannels, a high-sensitivity, economic, and recyclable Fe^III detection method is proposed by using dopamine (DOPA)-modified funnel-shaped nanochannels. Along with the Fe^III concentration changing, different Fe^III-DOPA chelates are generated in the channel, which affect the wettability and charge distribution of the pore surface, resulting in a change of ionic current through the nanochannels. Meanwhile, the funnel-shaped nanochannel applied in this work with a narrow cylindrical segment (a diameter close to 10 nm) as the critical section can enhance the sensing ability to the ultra-trace level (down to 10^-12 M). We expound the mechanism and feasibility of this method and anticipate that the system can be a good example to design highly sensitive and stable ion detection devices.

Keywords: EDTA-2Na; FeIII sensor; dopamine; funnel-shaped nanochannels; switchability.