Label-Free Detection of Ag+ Based on Gold Nanoparticles and Ag+-Specific DNA

A sensitive label-free method was presented for the determination of silver ion (Ag+) in this paper. Cytosine-rich DNA (C-DNA) was used as Ag+ specific DNA. Without Ag+ in the solution, fluorescence of fluorescein (FAM) is quenched by C-DNA stabilized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in high salt environment. When Ag+ is present in the solution, however, Ag+-mediated cytosine-Ag+-cytosine (C-Ag+-C) base pairs induced the C-DNA folding into a hairpin structure, which can not stabilize AuNPs in high salt environment, thus causing AuNPs aggregation. After centrifugation to remove the aggregated AuNPs, the quenching ability of the supernatant for FAM is decreased and the fluorescence intensity of solution increases with increasing the Ag+ concentration. Due to the highly specific interaction of the C-DNA towards Ag+ and the strong fluorescent quenching ability of AuNPs for FAM, the method has high selectivity and sensitivity for Ag+. Under the optimal conditions, the fluorescence intensity at 515 nm increased linearly with the concentration of Ag+ ranging from 15 nM to 700 nM, and the detection limit was determined as 6 nM based on 3 σ/slope. This method is simple, sensitive, and may be applied to other detection systems by selecting the appropriate DNA sequences.