Analytical Sciences

Chicken Egg White-stabilized Au Nanoclusters for Selective and Sensitive Detection of Hg(II)

Xing-Juan LI,* Jian LING,* Cai-Ling HAN,* Li-Qiang CHEN,** Qiu-E CAO,* and Zhong-Tao DING*

*School of Chemical Science and Technology, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, P. R. China
**Asian International Rivers Center, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, P. R. China

In this paper, chicken egg white purchased from a local market without further purification was directly used to prepare fluorescent gold nanoclusters through a one-step, simple, fast and green synthesis approach for analytical purposes. The as-prepared chicken egg white stabilized gold nanocluster probe has strong red fluorescence emission, which can be quenched by mercury ions and copper ions sensitively. By using an ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA) masking method, mercury ions in the range from 0.60 to 10 μM can be linearly detected with the limit of detection (LOD, 3σ) of 0.510 μM in the presence of equivalent copper ions. Since the preparation of a chicken egg white stabilized gold nanocluster probe is fast, easy and cheap, this selective analytical method for mercury pollution monitoring in environmental waters may be widely used in daily life by ordinary people.

J-STAGE: View this article in J-STAGE