Abstract
ABSTRACTThis research demonstrates the ability of biogenic synthesised silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) to sensitively and selectively detect the presence of mercury (Hg2+) in water. To achieve this, the following study investigated the synthesis of AgNPs using plant extract from basil and characterised the synthesised AgNPs using scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, UV-visible spectrophotometry, X-ray diffractometry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. We studied the effect of various factors, such as broth concentration, precursor concentration, temperature, contact time and pH, on the synthesis of the nanoparticles. The synthesised AgNPs were then used in the colorimetric detection of Hg2+ in water. The as-prepared AgNPs showed high selectivity to detect Hg2+ alone compared to other cations and high sensitivity at different concentration of Hg2+. The limit of detection for Hg2+ was 6.25 × 10–8 mol/L (12 µg/L) indicating that these biogenic synthesised AgNPs represent a highly sensitive Hg2+ detection tool.
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