Title: Plasmonic colorimetry: visual detection of environmentally relevant species

Authors: Fei Yan

Addresses: Department of Chemistry, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC 27707, USA

Abstract: Colorimetric detection of chemical species based on specially tailored noble metal nanoparticles is garnering increasing interest in the scientific community. The aggregation/dispersion of unmodified or ligand-functionalised plasmonic nanostructures upon binding to an environmental pollutant results in a colorimetric response, which can be easily discerned with the naked eye. This review offers a snapshot of recent advances in this field of plasmonic colorimetry. The identification and detection of anionic, neutral and cationic chemical species among a wide variety of other environmentally significant pollutants remains a particularly important but difficult challenge. The optical transduction of target-ligand interactions at the surface of plasmonic nanostructures via a distinct colour change is very attractive for the development of environmental sensors. Such a litmus test-type colorimetric transduction sensing scheme offers extreme simplicity and excellent robustness for practical applications.

Keywords: plasmonics; gold nanoparticles; silver nanoparticles; visual detection; heavy metals; cations; anions; environmental sensors; plasmonic colorimetry; chemical species; nanotechnology; environmental pollutants; environmental pollution; optical transduction; target-ligand interactions; colour change.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETM.2013.050683

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2013 Vol.16 No.1/2, pp.49 - 64

Received: 14 Mar 2011
Accepted: 15 Sep 2011

Published online: 17 Sep 2014 *

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