Gold nanoparticles decorated magnetic nanozyme for colorimetric detection of mercury (II) ions via enhanced peroxidase-like activity

Abstract

Mercury is one of the heavy metal ions that are released to the environment through various means including anthropogenic pollution. A very low dose of mercury in environmental systems such as water can lead to debilitating effects on the health of humans and animals, if consumed untreated. To reduce this effect, it is critical to develop a simple, non-expensive, and non-sophisticated detection and monitoring system of mercury. Here, we report a simple colorimetric method based on the peroxidase-like activity of AuNPs/ZnO/Fe3O4. Different characterization techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) were used to investigate the successful formation of these composites. The formation of AuNPs was assisted by ZnO. The low Km value (0.7368 mM) obtained from the kinetic study of the catalytic oxidation of 3, 3′, 5, 5′ − Tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) showed strong affinity of TMB to AgNPs/ZnO/Fe3O4. The peroxidase-like activity of AgNPs/ZnO/Fe3O4, was further enhanced in the presence of mercury (II). The absorption intensities of the resulting oxidized TMB (oxTMB) increased linearly in a concentration range of 0.05 – 20 µM. The method also exhibited high selectivity to mercury (II) ions. The limit of detection (LOD) in this linear range was found to be 28.1 nM. The feasibility of the method in determination of mercury (II) ions from real samples was confirmed from high recovery rates in tap water samples. The method shows a great potential for determination of mercury (II) ions in environmental samples.