Bifunctionalized Silver Nanoparticles as Hg2+ Plasmonic Sensor in Water: Synthesis, Characterizations, and Ecosafety
by
Paolo Prosposito 1,2
, Luca Burratti 1, Arianna Bellingeri 3, Giuseppe Protano 3, Claudia Faleri 4, Ilaria Corsi 3, Chiara Battocchio 5, Giovanna Iucci 5, Luca Tortora 5,6, Valeria Secchi 5, Stefano Franchi 7 and 
Iole Venditti 5,*
Paolo Prosposito 1,2, Luca Burratti 1, Arianna Bellingeri 3, Giuseppe Protano 3, Claudia Faleri 4, Ilaria Corsi 3, Chiara Battocchio 5, Giovanna Iucci 5, Luca Tortora 5,6, Valeria Secchi 5, Stefano Franchi 7 and Iole Venditti 5,*
1
Department of Industrial Engineering and INSTM, University of Rome Tor Vergata, via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
2
Center for Regenerative Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
3
Department of Physical, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Siena, Via Mattioli 4, 53100 Siena, Italy
4
Department of Life Sciences, via Mattioli 4, 53100 Siena, Italy
5
Department of Sciences, Roma Tre University of Rome, Via della Vasca Navale 79, 00146 Rome, Italy
6
Surface Analysis Laboratory INFN Roma Tre, via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Rome, Italy
7
Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.c.p.A., Strada Statale 14, km 163.5, 34149 Basovizza Trieste, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Nanomaterials 2019, 9(10), 1353; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano9101353
Received: 20 August 2019 / Revised: 13 September 2019 / Accepted: 16 September 2019 / Published: 20 September 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanostructured Materials based on Noble Metals for Advanced Biological Applications)
In this work, hydrophilic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), bifunctionalized with citrate (Cit) and L-cysteine (L-cys), were synthesized. The typical local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) at λ max = 400 nm together with Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) measurements (<2RH> = 8 ± 1 nm) and TEM studies (Ø = 5 ± 2 nm) confirmed the system nanodimension and the stability in water. Molecular and electronic structures of AgNPs were investigated by FTIR, SR-XPS, and NEXAFS techniques. We tested the system as plasmonic sensor in water with 16 different metal ions, finding sensitivity to Hg2+ in the range 1–10 ppm. After this first screening, the molecular and electronic structure of the AgNPs-Hg2+ conjugated system was deeply investigated by SR-XPS. Moreover, in view of AgNPs application as sensors in real water systems, environmental safety assessment (ecosafety) was performed by using standardized ecotoxicity bioassay as algal growth inhibition tests (OECD 201, ISO 10253:2006), coupled with determination of Ag+ release from the nanoparticles in fresh and marine aqueous exposure media, by means of ICP-MS. These latest studies confirmed low toxicity and low Ag+ release. Therefore, these ecosafe AgNPs demonstrate a great potential in selective detection of environmental Hg2+, which may attract a great interest for several biological research fields.
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Keywords:
silver nanoparticles; Hg2+ sensors; heavy metal sensing; plasmonic sensors; optical sensors; ecosafety
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MDPI and ACS Style
Prosposito, P.; Burratti, L.; Bellingeri, A.; Protano, G.; Faleri, C.; Corsi, I.; Battocchio, C.; Iucci, G.; Tortora, L.; Secchi, V.; Franchi, S.; Venditti, I. Bifunctionalized Silver Nanoparticles as Hg2+ Plasmonic Sensor in Water: Synthesis, Characterizations, and Ecosafety. Nanomaterials 2019, 9, 1353.
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