Abstract
Mercury is a very toxic element that is widely spread in the atmosphere, lithosphere, and surface water. Concentrated mercury poses serious problems to human health, as bioaccumulation of mercury within the brain and kidneys ultimately leads to neurological diseases. To control mercury pollution and reduce mercury damage to human health, sensitive determination of mercury is important. This article summarizes some current sensors for the determination of both abiotic and biotic mercury. A wide array of sensors for monitoring mercury is described, including biosensors and chemical sensors, while piezoelectric and microcantilever sensors are also described. Additionally, newly developed nanomaterials offer great potential for fabricating novel mercury sensors. Some of the functional fluorescent nanosensors for the determination of mercury are covered. Afterwards, the in vivo determination of mercury and the characterization of different forms of mercury are discussed. Finally, the future direction for mercury detection is outlined, suggesting that nanomaterials may provide revolutionary tools in biomedical and environmental monitoring of mercury.
Highlights
Mercury generally adopts one of three common forms: elemental mercury (Hg0), ionic mercury (Hg2+), and organic mercury complexes
Mercury can transform among the different forms, so the existence of any form of mercury is potentially harmful to human health
Due to the high sensitivity that can be achieved with the technique, the most common chemical sensors are based on fluorescence signals
Summary
Mercury generally adopts one of three common forms: elemental mercury (Hg0), ionic mercury (Hg2+), and organic mercury complexes. Elemental mercury oxidizes into ionic mercury and deposits in the environment, possibly causing elevated mercury levels. Concentrated mercury levels pose serious health problems. A wide variety of mercury determination techniques has been developed. The majority of these techniques are based on analytical instrumentation methods. Two very popular methods are cold-vapor atomic absorption spectrometry and atomic fluorescence spectrometry These methods can determine mercury with very high sensitivities. This article initially discusses the current problems that mercury poses on the environment and human health. It focuses on present mercury sensors with an emphasis on biosensors and chemical sensors. The article briefly reviews the potential techniques for in vivo mercury detection and the ability to identify different forms of mercury
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