Gold nanorods for surface Plasmon resonance detection of mercury (II) in flow injection analysis

This article investigates the flow injection analysis of mercury (II) ions in tap water samples via surface Plasmon resonance detection. Quantitative analysis of mercury (II) is based on the chemical interaction of metallic mercury with gold nanorods immobilized on a glass substrate. A new flow cell design is presented with the ability to accommodate the detecting substrate in the sample compartment of commercial spectrometers. Two alternatives are here considered for mercury (II) detection, namely stop-flow and continuous flow injection analysis modes. The best limit of detection (2.4 ng mL(-1)) was obtained with the continuous flow injection analysis approach. The accurate determination of mercury (II) ions in samples of unknown composition is demonstrated with a fortified tap water sample.