Silver Nanocatalyst Based Clock Reaction for Multi‐mode Detection of Tetracycline Antibiotics

Abstract

AbstractA silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) catalyzed clock reaction of 4‐nitrophenol (4‐NP) and NaBH4 was fabricated for multi‐mode detection of tetracyclines (TCs). The yellow 4‐NP was reduced to the colorless 4‐aminophenol (4‐AP) using AgNPs as the nanocatalysts, however, it took relatively longer time in the presence of TCs because the AgNPs’ catalytic surface was capped by TCs. The catalytic activity of AgNPs with different concentrations of TCs could be reflected by the visual color and the reaction time of the 4‐NP‐NaBH4 system, which was quantatively measured through chronometric and colorimetric responses. Under the optimal conditions, the detection limits of four TCs were 6.7 to 14.3 nM with the chronometric assay and 28.5 to 42.3 nM with colorimetric assay, respectively. The proposed methods were sensitive to monitor multiple TCs in an economical way, which was successfully applied for detecting of TCs in various environmental water samples.