A one-step homogeneous plasmonic circular dichroism detection of aqueous mercury ions using nucleic acid functionalized gold nanorods

Abstract

In this work, we report the application of gold nanorods ladder assemblies as chiroptical sensors for detecting mercury ions (Hg(2+)). By taking advantage of the Hg(2+)-mediated T-T base pair of DNA and the high sensitivity of CD measurements, the method offers a simple and sensitive detection of target Hg(2+) residues in water. Therefore, the developed method will be a promising tool for monitoring heavy metal ions, other small molecules and biomacromolecules.

Mercury–DNA interaction based detection of mercury ions by DNA amplification with high sensitivity and selectivity

“…These instrumental methods have great stability and reliability; however, expensive instrumentation and complicated sample preparation procedures are also required. Since Ono found that thymine-thymine (T-T) mismatches are very selective for Hg 2+ binding (Miyake et al, 2006), several methods for the detection of Hg 2+ have been developed based on small molecule fluorophores (Al-Kady, Gaber, Hussein, & Ebeid, 2009;Chen et al, 2008;He, Zhao, He, Liu, Duan, 2008), polymers (Liu et al, 2007), oligonucleotides (Chiang et al, 2008;Liu, Hsieh, Huang, Lin, & Chang, 2008;Ono & Togashi, 2004;Zhu et al, 2012), proteins (Guo & Irudayaraj, 2011;Wen, Deng, Guo, & Dong, 2011) and metal nanoparticles (Sun et al, 2010). These fluorimetric, colorimetric and electrochemical sensors not only have some advantages but also have disadvantages, as they are complicated, costly and time consuming.…”

Triple Raman Label‐Encoded Gold Nanoparticle Trimers for Simultaneous Heavy Metal Ion Detection

“…Although these sensors are highly sensitive and selective, most of them can only be used for single-ion (Hg 2+ or Ag + ) detection. [ 3,21,[24][25][26][27] As Hg 2+ and Ag + usually coexist in the environment and both of them are of potential hazards, it is highly desirable to create an assay for the simultaneous detection of these ions.…”

Ultrasensitive SERS detection of VEGF based on a self-assembled Ag ornamented–AU pyramid superstructure

“…The post optimization aptamers possess more advantages than antibodies such as chemical synthesis, easy modification, target versatility, high stability and resistance to degradation and denaturation. Moreover, biosensors with various aptamers based on nanomaterials (Guo et al, 2007;Kwon et al, 2010;Wu et al, 2009), which may potentially be designed for a lower concentration of biomolecules, have attracted wide attention (Ma et al, 2014;Zhu et al, 2012).…”