Visual and surface plasmon resonance sensor for zirconium based on zirconium-induced aggregation of adenosine...

Owing to its high affinity with phosphate, Zr(IV) can induce the aggregation of adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP)-stabilized AuNPs, leading to the change of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) absorption spectra and color of ATP-stabilized AuNP solutions. Based on these phenomena, visual and SPR sensors for Zr(IV) have been developed for the first time. The A(660 nm)/A(518 nm) values of ATP-stabilized AuNPs in SPR absorption spectra increase linearly with the concentrations of Zr(IV) from 0.5 μM to 100 μM (r=0.9971) with a detection limit of 95 nM. A visual Zr(IV) detection is achieved with a detection limit of 30 μM. The sensor shows excellent selectivity against other metal ions, such as Cu(2+), Fe(3+), Cd(2+), and Pb(2+). The recoveries for the detection of 5 μM, 10 μM, 25 μM and 75 μM Zr(IV) in lake water samples are 96.0%, 97.0%, 95.6% and 102.4%, respectively. The recoveries of the proposed SPR method are comparable with those of ICP-OES method.