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Mesoporous Silica-gold Films for Straightforward, Highly Reproducible Monitoring of Mercury Traces in Water

Trace-level detection of mercury in waters is connected with several complications including complex multistep analysis routines, applying additional, harmful reagents increasing the risk of contamination, and the need for expensive analysis equipment. Here, we present a straightforward reagent-free...

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Autores principales: Mutschler, Anna, Stock, Vivian, Ebert, Lena, Björk, Emma M., Leopold, Kerstin, Lindén, Mika
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6359669/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30597846
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano9010035
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author Mutschler, Anna
Stock, Vivian
Ebert, Lena
Björk, Emma M.
Leopold, Kerstin
Lindén, Mika
author_facet Mutschler, Anna
Stock, Vivian
Ebert, Lena
Björk, Emma M.
Leopold, Kerstin
Lindén, Mika
author_sort Mutschler, Anna
collection PubMed
description Trace-level detection of mercury in waters is connected with several complications including complex multistep analysis routines, applying additional, harmful reagents increasing the risk of contamination, and the need for expensive analysis equipment. Here, we present a straightforward reagent-free approach for mercury trace determination using a novel thin film sampling stick for passive sampling based on gold nanoparticles. The nanoparticles supported on a silicon wafer and further covered with a thin layer of mesoporous silica. The mesoporous silica layer is acting as a protection layer preventing gold desorption upon exposure to water. The gold nanoparticles are created by thermal treatment of a homogenous gold layer on silicon wafer prepared by vacuum evaporation. This gold-covered substrate is subsequently covered by a layer of mesoporous silica through dip-coating. Dissolved mercury ions are extracted from a water sample, e.g., river water, by incorporation into the gold matrix in a diffusion-controlled manner. Thus, the amount of mercury accumulated during sampling depends on the mercury concentration of the water sample, the accumulation time, as well as the size of the substrate. Therefore, the experimental conditions can be chosen to fit any given mercury concentration level without loss of sensitivity. Determination of the mercury amount collected on the stick is performed after thermal desorption of mercury in the gas phase using atomic fluorescence spectrometry. Furthermore, the substrates can be re-used several tens of times without any loss of performance, and the batch-to-batch variations are minimal. Therefore, the nanogold-mesoporous silica sampling substrates allow for highly sensitive, simple, and reagent-free determination of mercury trace concentrations in waters, which should also be applicable for on-site analysis. Successful validation of the method was shown by measurement of mercury concentration in the certified reference material ORMS-5, a river water.
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spelling pubmed-63596692019-02-06 Mesoporous Silica-gold Films for Straightforward, Highly Reproducible Monitoring of Mercury Traces in Water Mutschler, Anna Stock, Vivian Ebert, Lena Björk, Emma M. Leopold, Kerstin Lindén, Mika Nanomaterials (Basel) Article Trace-level detection of mercury in waters is connected with several complications including complex multistep analysis routines, applying additional, harmful reagents increasing the risk of contamination, and the need for expensive analysis equipment. Here, we present a straightforward reagent-free approach for mercury trace determination using a novel thin film sampling stick for passive sampling based on gold nanoparticles. The nanoparticles supported on a silicon wafer and further covered with a thin layer of mesoporous silica. The mesoporous silica layer is acting as a protection layer preventing gold desorption upon exposure to water. The gold nanoparticles are created by thermal treatment of a homogenous gold layer on silicon wafer prepared by vacuum evaporation. This gold-covered substrate is subsequently covered by a layer of mesoporous silica through dip-coating. Dissolved mercury ions are extracted from a water sample, e.g., river water, by incorporation into the gold matrix in a diffusion-controlled manner. Thus, the amount of mercury accumulated during sampling depends on the mercury concentration of the water sample, the accumulation time, as well as the size of the substrate. Therefore, the experimental conditions can be chosen to fit any given mercury concentration level without loss of sensitivity. Determination of the mercury amount collected on the stick is performed after thermal desorption of mercury in the gas phase using atomic fluorescence spectrometry. Furthermore, the substrates can be re-used several tens of times without any loss of performance, and the batch-to-batch variations are minimal. Therefore, the nanogold-mesoporous silica sampling substrates allow for highly sensitive, simple, and reagent-free determination of mercury trace concentrations in waters, which should also be applicable for on-site analysis. Successful validation of the method was shown by measurement of mercury concentration in the certified reference material ORMS-5, a river water. MDPI 2018-12-28 /pmc/articles/PMC6359669/ /pubmed/30597846 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano9010035 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Mutschler, Anna
Stock, Vivian
Ebert, Lena
Björk, Emma M.
Leopold, Kerstin
Lindén, Mika
Mesoporous Silica-gold Films for Straightforward, Highly Reproducible Monitoring of Mercury Traces in Water
title Mesoporous Silica-gold Films for Straightforward, Highly Reproducible Monitoring of Mercury Traces in Water
title_full Mesoporous Silica-gold Films for Straightforward, Highly Reproducible Monitoring of Mercury Traces in Water
title_fullStr Mesoporous Silica-gold Films for Straightforward, Highly Reproducible Monitoring of Mercury Traces in Water
title_full_unstemmed Mesoporous Silica-gold Films for Straightforward, Highly Reproducible Monitoring of Mercury Traces in Water
title_short Mesoporous Silica-gold Films for Straightforward, Highly Reproducible Monitoring of Mercury Traces in Water
title_sort mesoporous silica-gold films for straightforward, highly reproducible monitoring of mercury traces in water
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6359669/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30597846
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano9010035
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