Optical Sensing of Toxic Cyanide Anions Using Noble Metal Nanomaterials

Off-On-Off Cascade Recognition of Cyanide, Mercury, and Aluminum Using N/5-Monosubstituted Rhodanines

This study aims to synthesize N- and 5-monosubstituted rhodanine derivatives as ion-sensing organics and investigate their sensing abilities. Following an easy and green approach to synthesis, the anion-sensing properties of the rhodanines were studied using colorimetric detection and spectroscopic methods. As a result of studies, rhodanines are found to be highly solvent-controlled colorimetric and fluorescent cyanide, mercury, and aluminum sensors. The stoichiometry of the interaction between CN- and both probes was determined to be 1:1 using Job's plot analysis. The binding constants (Ks) of CN- to 5-arylRh and N-arylRh were calculated to be 3.25 × 104 and 7.07 × 104 M-1, respectively, demonstrating their high affinity for cyanide ions. The limits of detections for the 5-arylRh and N-arylRh were also determined as 356 and 617 nM, respectively. In addition to detecting CN-, 5-arylRh also serves as a specific turn-off sensor for mercury and aluminum when cyanide and hydroxide are present. This enables the fluorescence intensity to be toggled on/off by alternating the addition of CN-/OH- and Hg2+/Al3+. Furthermore, the LOD values for Hg2+ and Al3+ with 5-arylRh-CN- and 5-arylRh-OH- were determined to be 414 nM and 1.35 μM, respectively. Furthermore, the turn-on binding mechanisms of 5-arylRh and N-arylRh with cyanide ions were elucidated, and the experimental band gap (highest occupied molecular orbital/least unoccupied molecular orbital) energy values corroborated the proposed mechanism. Additionally, the interaction mechanism of the probes with CN- was further investigated by using the 1H NMR technique. Collectively, these findings suggest that 5-arylRh, N-arylRh, and 5-arylRh-CN- hold promise as selective and sensitive candidate sensors for CN-, Hg2+, and Al3+ ions.

Fluorescent Carbon Dots: Aggregation-Induced Emission Enhancement, Application as Probe for CN- and Cr2O7-2, Sensing Strips and Bio-imaging Agent

Fluorescent carbon dots (Trp-CDs) were prepared using tryptophan as precursor and were characterized on the basis of elemental analysis, powder-XRD, IR, Raman spectroscopy, 13C-NMR, UV-Vis, fluorescence and TEM. Trp-CDs exhibit poor fluorescence in 100% water but showed strong Aggregation Induced Emission (AIE) in ethanol and higher alcohols. The anion sensing study of Trp-CD revealed that it selectively detects CN- and Cr2O7-2 and from fluorescence quenching titration study, quenching constant, LOD and range of detection were evaluated. The emission life-time of Trp-CD before and after addition of CN- and Cr2O7-2 were measured, the decay curve before addition of anion was best fitted with a bi-exponential function with life-time of τ1 2.79 ns (10.74%) and τ2 18.93 ns (89.26%). The mechanistic study revealed that for CN-, the fluorescence quenching is due to its interaction with protons attached to surface functional groups and for Cr2O7-2, it is due to inner filter effect (IFE). Sensing strips were prepared by coating Trp-CDs onto various solid surfaces including agarose films and were used for detection of CN- and Cr2O7-. Trp-CD was found to be nontoxic and biocompatible and used as staining agent for Artemia and Bacteria (Bacillus Subtilis, Pseudomonas) and detection of CN- and Cr2O7-.

Carbon dots@noble metal nanoparticle composites: research progress report

Carbon dots@noble metal nanoparticle composites are formed by combining carbon dots and metal nanoparticles using various strategies. Carbon dots exhibit a reducing ability and function as stabilisers; consequently, metal-ion solutions can be directly reduced by them to synthesise gold, silver, and gold-silver alloy particles. Carbon dots@gold/silver/gold-silver particle composites have demonstrated the potential for several practical applications owing to their superior properties and simple preparation process. Until now, several review articles have been published to summarise fluorescent carbon dots or noble metal nanomaterials. Compared with metal-free carbon dots, carbon dots@noble metal nanoparticles have a unique morphology and structure, resulting in new physicochemical properties, which allow for sensing, bioimaging, and bacteriostasis applications. Therefore, to promote the effective development of carbon dots@noble metal nanoparticle composites, this paper primarily reviews carbon dots@gold/silver/gold-silver alloy nanoparticle composites for the first time in terms of the following aspects. (1) The synthesis strategies of carbon dots@noble metal nanoparticle composites are outlined. The principle and function of carbon dots in the synthesis strategies are examined. The advantages and disadvantages of these methods and composites are analysed. (2) The characteristics and properties of such composites are described. (3) The applications of these composite materials are summarised. Finally, the potentials and limitations of carbon dots@noble metal nanoparticle composites are discussed, thus laying the foundation for their further development.

Plasmon Resonance in a System of Bi Nanoparticles Embedded into (Al,Ga)As Matrix

We reveal the feasibility of the localized surface plasmon resonance in a system of Bi nanoparticles embedded into an AlxGa1-xAs semiconductor matrix. With an ab initio determined dielectric function for bismuth and well-known dielectric properties of AlxGa1-xAs solid solution, we performed calculations of the optical extinction spectra for such metamaterial using Mie's theory. The calculations demonstrate a strong band of the optical extinction using the localized surface plasmons near a photon energy of 2.5 eV. For the semiconducting matrices with a high aluminum content x>0.7, the extinction by plasmonic nanoparticles plays the dominant role in the optical properties of the medium near the resonance photon energy.

Efficient cyanide sensing using plasmonic Ag/Fe3O4 nanoparticles

In the line of our previous studies, we have reported a developed sensitive and selective probe for cyanide detection based on Ag/Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) with an extremely low limit of detection at the level of ng per milliliter. Herein, we report the improvement of the easy-to-make magnetic silver nanoparticle-based sensor system for cyanide determination in an extended calibration range with higher selectivity and precision. As far as our knowledge is concerned, the detectable linear range from 1.0 nM to 160 μM (0.026 ng mL-1 to 4.16 μg mL-1) of the improved simple highly precise technique represents the widest assay that has been reported so far. The method is based on strong enhancement of scattered light of the plasmonic nanoparticles and simultaneously cyanide fluorescence quenching. Although the fluorescence of cyanide is highly selective and precise, its intensity is poor. On the other hand, the strongly enhanced Rayleigh signal has a low repeatability. We proposed a method to remove the interference and obtained an effective factor that is directly proportional to cyanide concentration utilizing both above signals simultaneously. In this work, Ag/Fe3O4 NPs have been synthesized easily using a green preparation method and the NPs were consequently characterized using powder XRD, UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). A combination of absorption, Rayleigh and fluorescence characteristics were used for detection of cyanide in real samples and an overview of recently reported sensors for cyanide was also provided.

Ultrasensitive Monitoring of Cyanide Concentrations in Water Using a Aucore-Agshell Hybrid-Coating-Based Fiber Optical Sensor

Cyanides, which are extremely toxic chemicals that are rapidly absorbed into the human body and interact with cytochrome oxidase, strongly inhibit cellular respiration to body death with convulsions. Cyanide ions that exist in many forms in nature such as those found in apricot kernels, cassava roots, and bamboo shoots as cyanogenic glycosides are inevitably used in various industries, including gold and silver mining as well as in dyes and plastic industries. In this study, for the sake of developing ultrahigh-sensitive sensors for cyanide monitoring in a simple manner, we chemically synthesize Aucore-Agshell hybrid nanomaterials of different core/shell thicknesses for colorimetric sensors and fiber optical sensors. Their sensing principle relies on the formation of the Ag/Au cyanocomplex upon cyanide injection. The generated metal cyanocomplex induced changes in refractive indices, causing changes in properties of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), i.e., optical absorbance change for the colorimetric sensors. For fiber optical sensors, the hybrid metal nanoparticles were immobilized on the fiber core surface and the metal cyanocomplex formation induced changes in the fiber cladding refractive index, enabling quantitative cyanide detection with ultrahigh sensitivity. The LSPR-based colorimetric sensor provided the lowest detectable cyanide concentration of 5 × 10-6 M, whereas the value for the fiber-based sensor was 8 × 10-11 M.

Smartphone-enabled colorimetric visual quantification of highly hazardous trivalent chromium ions in environmental waters and catalytic reduction of p-nitroaniline by thiol-functionalized gold nanoparticles

High-efficiency sensing systems for extremely hazardous chromium (Cr(III)) ions are important due to their detrimental effects on human health and the environment. We employed a spectrophotometric method combined with a smartphone (red, green, and blue (RGB) color ratio)-based detection platform to realize the quick, visually quantifiable in situ detection of Cr(III) ions using surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-aided colorimetry. For optical sensing nanoprobes, we synthesized the 2-Mercapto-5-methyl-1,3,4-thiadiazole (MMT)-modified gold nanoparticles (MMT-AuNPs) using a wet chemical method. By way of a coordination reaction, the Cr(III) ions induce the as-prepared MMT-AuNPs to aggregate and subsequently change the SPR wavelength band. The freshly synthesized MMT-AuNPs exhibited a wine-red color. While Cr(III) ions interact with the MMT-AuNPs, the color of the latter evolved from wine red to purple, thus facilitating visual monitoring. The SPR-relevant color change allowed the quantitative sensing of Cr(III) ions in the range of 40-128 nM, with the limit of detection of 6.93 nM when employing the spectrophotometric method and 12.4 nM when using the smartphone RGB color ratio. Furthermore, we developed the spectrophotometric technique that used the smartphone RGB color ratio for on-site analysis of Cr(III) ions in environmental water samples, indicating the possibility of its chemo-sensing applications for portable quantitative detection devices. Additionally, the catalytic performance of the MMT-AuNPs was demonstrated by the reduction of p-nitroaniline in the presence of sodium borohydride. It was interestingly unveiled that the MMT-AuNPs showed outstanding catalytic performance with a catalytic rate constant of 6.31 × 10-3 s-1.

Photonic/Electronic Material Performance and Application Based on Nanocrystals and Nanostructures

Electronic, optoelectronic, and optical devices have become integral to the fabric of the modern life, underpinning critical advancements in information technology, energy utilization, biotechnology, environmental monitoring, and nanotechnology [...].

Faujasite-Type Zeolite Obtained from Ecuadorian Clay as a Support of ZnTiO3/TiO2 NPs for Cyanide Removal in Aqueous Solutions

In this study, zeolites prepared by the hydrothermal method from Ecuadorian clay were combined with the precursor clay and with the semiconductor ZnTiO₃/TiO₂ prepared by the sol-gel method to adsorb and photodegrade cyanide species from aqueous solutions. These compounds were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-rays, point of zero charge, and specific surface area. The adsorption characteristics of the compounds were measured using batch adsorption experiments as a function of pH, initial concentration, temperature, and contact time. The Langmuir isotherm model and the pseudo-second-order model fit the adsorption process better. The equilibrium state in the reaction systems at pH = 7 was reached around 130 and 60 min in the adsorption and photodegradation experiments, respectively. The maximum cyanide adsorption value (73.37 mg g^-1) was obtained with the ZC compound (zeolite + clay), and the maximum cyanide photodegradation capacity (90.7%) under UV light was obtained with the TC compound (ZnTiO₃/TiO₂ + clay). Finally, the reuse of the compounds in five consecutive treatment cycles was determined. The results reflect that the compounds synthesized and adapted to the extruded form could potentially be used for the removal of cyanide from wastewater.