A colorimetric detection of Hg2+ based on gold nanoparticles synthesized oxidized N-methylpyrrolidone as a reducing agent

Xiaodong Shao; Dou Yang; Min Wang; Qiaoli Yue

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-49551-x

A colorimetric detection of Hg²⁺ based on gold nanoparticles synthesized oxidized N-methylpyrrolidone as a reducing agent

Sci Rep. 2023 Dec 14;13(1):22208. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-49551-x.

Authors

Xiaodong Shao^{1

2}, Dou Yang³, Min Wang³, Qiaoli Yue⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Performance and Structural Safety for Petroleum Tubular Goods and Equipment Materials, CNPC Tubular Goods Research Institute, Xi'an, 710077, China.
² School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710129, China.
³ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Energy Storage and Novel Cell Technology, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, 252059, China.
⁴ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Energy Storage and Novel Cell Technology, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, 252059, China. yueqiaoli@lcu.edu.cn.

Abstract

In this study, a gold nanoparticles colorimetric probe (AuNPs) with direct response to mercury ions (Hg²⁺) were developed using treated N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) and chloroauric acid (HAuCl₄) as precursors. NMP showed good reducibility after high temperature hydrolysis and could be used as reducing and stabilizing agent to synthesize AuNPs. The prepared AuNPs have obvious characteristic absorption peaks and appear wine-red. At the same time, it was found that the presence of Hg²⁺ can cause the aggregation of AuNPs, increased the absorbance at 700 nm, and changed the color of the solution into blue-gray. This method is capable of sensitive and specific determination of Hg²⁺ ranging from 1 to 30 μM, with the limit of detection (LOD) at 0.3 μM. The method showed good specificity for the determination of Hg²⁺ and has the potential to be applied to Hg²⁺ detection in sewage samples in the environment.