Nanoporous gold microelectrode for electrochemical sensing of As(III) in cellular environment

Zhongxin Zhuang; Jiawei Xu; Yan Chen; Zheng Guo; Zhonggang Liu; Xingjiu Huang

doi:10.1016/j.aca.2023.341933

Nanoporous gold microelectrode for electrochemical sensing of As(III) in cellular environment

Anal Chim Acta. 2023 Nov 22:1282:341933. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2023.341933. Epub 2023 Oct 19.

Authors

Zhongxin Zhuang¹, Jiawei Xu¹, Yan Chen¹, Zheng Guo², Zhonggang Liu³, Xingjiu Huang⁴

Affiliations

¹ Information Materials and Intelligent Sensing Laboratory of Anhui Province, Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, PR China; Key Laboratory of Structure and Functional Regulation of Hybrid Materials of Ministry of Education, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, PR China.
² Information Materials and Intelligent Sensing Laboratory of Anhui Province, Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, PR China; Key Laboratory of Structure and Functional Regulation of Hybrid Materials of Ministry of Education, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, PR China. Electronic address: zhguo@ahu.edu.cn.
³ Information Materials and Intelligent Sensing Laboratory of Anhui Province, Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, PR China; Key Laboratory of Structure and Functional Regulation of Hybrid Materials of Ministry of Education, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, PR China. Electronic address: zhgliu@ahu.edu.cn.
⁴ Information Materials and Intelligent Sensing Laboratory of Anhui Province, Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, PR China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Optics and Technology, Institute of Solid State Physics, HFIPS, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, PR China.

PMID: 37923407
DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2023.341933

Abstract

The highly toxic arsenite (As(III)) could cause serious cytotoxicity on metabolism, resulting in several diseases. However, it is still a great challenge on the precise sensing of As(III) in complicated conditions, especially in cellular environment. In this work, a nanoporous gold microelectrode (NPG-μE) was fabricated by a simple electrochemical alloying/dealloying method and developed for the electroanalysis of As(III) in the lung cancer cellular (A549 cells) environment. The as-fabricated NPG-μE exhibited the excellent electrochemical performance towards As(III) detection at physiological pH (0.1 M PBS solution, pH 7.4) with a high sensitivity of 5.07 μA ppb^-1 cm^-2 and a low limit of detection of 0.25 ppb (S/N = 3). The large surface area derived from the nanoporous structure, and the well-dispersed active sites as well as the highly electro-catalytic activity of gold played a critical role on the improved electrochemical behaviors. Furthermore, the effect of the exposure time on electrochemical monitoring As(III) in A549 cellular environment was successfully investigated, revealing the fatal impact of As(III) on cell cycle. This work offered a great trial on investigating of the cytotoxicity of arsenite and their precise detection in complicated cellular environment.

Keywords: Arsenite; Electroanalysis; Lung cancer cells; Microelectrode; Nanoporous gold.

MeSH terms

Arsenites* / toxicity
Electrochemical Techniques / methods
Gold / chemistry
Microelectrodes
Nanopores*

Substances

arsenite
Arsenites
Gold