With the rapid development of nano-technology and the continuous expansion of the nano-industry, many nano-materials continue to emerge. Because of its high molar absorptivity and variable optical properties, gold nanoparticles have been widely used in the fields of chemistry, physics and biology. Among them, visual detection is one of the important applications of gold nanoparticles.

A team of researchers from the Natural Products Research Center of the Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chengdu Institute of Biology and Dr. Shao Huawu, in collaboration with Jiang Xingyu's team of researchers from the National Center for Nanosciences, has developed a new method for detecting heavy metal ions in water using gold nanoparticles. Its operation is to first adsorb papain containing a polythiol group on gold nanoparticles. Some functional groups (such as thiol, carboxyl, and amino groups) on the surface of the protein can recognize some heavy metal ions (mercury, lead, and copper ions). The addition of these ions allows the aggregation of gold nanoparticles, and the color of the solution changes from red to purple during this process. Based on this phenomenon, we can directly detect heavy metal ions in the water with the naked eye.

The experimental results show that the detection sensitivity is related to the size of the gold nanoparticles, and the larger gold nanoparticles have higher detection sensitivity. This method will have potential applications in water quality monitoring.

The results of this study have been published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics (2011, 26, 4064-4069).

Nitrogen Generating Equipment

Nitrogen Generating Equipment

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