Silver nanoparticle based efficient colorimetric assay for carbaryl – An insecticide

Abstract

Metal nanoparticles capped with polymers have been employed for multiple analytical and biomedical applications. In this study, highly stable polypropylene glycol (PPG) capped silver nanoparticles (PPG-AgNPs) were synthesized by chemical reduction method. The characterization of PPG-AgNPs was performed by zeta sizer, UV–visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Field emission scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive X-ray (FESEM-EDX), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Moreover, PPG-AgNPs were employed as a chemosensor for an insecticide of the carbamate family, Carbaryl. PPG-AgNPs based colorimetric assay render a quantitative, rapid, selective, and efficient detection of carbaryl in an analytical range of 0.05–100 µM in the presence of several other pesticides/insecticides, salts, and drugs. The limit of detection and quantification of the proposed assay for carbaryl were as low as 0.005 µM and 0.016 µM, respectively. The major strength of the proposed PPG-AgNPs based assay is its efficiency for on-spot detection of carbaryl in ecological, biological, and food samples away from a sophisticated laboratory setup. While the quantitative performance of the proposed sensor for carbaryl is comparable with UPLC and UV–Vis spectroscopy in standard conditions, the performance of the PPG-AgNPs based CAR sensor stands out for environmental, biological, and food samples.