Abstract
Mercury is one of the most dangerous heavy metals due to its extreme toxicity to both humans and the biosphere. In this work, an in-situ and ultrasensitive method for the detection of mercury (II) ions (Hg2+) using the dark-field microspectroscopy-based localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) nanosensor is demonstrated. In our homemade high-throughput microfluidic chip, the fixed nanorods and the free small gold nanospheres combine to form the core-satellite structures with the help of T- Hg2+-T chemical coordination. Such a process results in a spectral red shift due to plasmonic coupling, which allows us to reach a picomolar detection limit and a linear response range from 10 pM to 10 µM. In addition, our LSPR nanosensor has excellent selectivity and no interference for the detection of Hg2+, which was evaluated by monitoring responses to different heavy metal ions (Pb2+, Cd2+, Cr2+, Ni2+, and Cu2+) and their mixed samples. Our sensor platform's effectiveness offers a practical method for detecting traces of Hg2+ in real-life water samples.
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