Glutathione engineered gold nanoparticles-based electrochemical aptasensor for determination of arsenic ions in water, food, and soil samples

Abstract

Arsenic, As(III) is one of the highly toxic metalloid ions present in the earth's crust. Its availability especially in groundwater, soil, and plant products can impose significant environmental and health risks. In order to examine aforementioned matrices for the presence of As(III), we have fabricated a sensitive electrochemical bionanoprobe using As(III) specific aptamer modified glutathione (GSH)-capped gold nanoparticles. The developed probe demonstrated remarkable sensing performance for a wide concentration range of As(III) (e.g., 0.1–1000 mg/L) with extremely high sensitivity of 0.0875 µA/(mg/L.mm2). Moreover, we have achieved an exceptionally low limit of detection (0.13 µg/L) for As(III) using the developed bionanoprobe. Furthermore, it displayed excellent performance in monitoring As(III) in groundwater, soil, and rice samples.