Silver Nanoprism Enhanced Colorimetry for Precise Detection of Dissolved Oxygen

Dissolved oxygen (DO) content is an essential indicator for evaluating the quality of the water body and the main parameter for water quality monitoring. The development of high-precision DO detection methods is of great significance. This paper reports an integrated optofluidic device for the high precision measurement of dissolved oxygen based on the characteristics of silver nanoprisms. Metal nanoparticles, especially silver nanoprisms, are extremely sensitive to their surroundings. In glucose and glucose oxidase systems, dissolved oxygen will be transformed into H₂O₂, which affects the oxidation and erosion process of nanoprisms, then influences the optical properties of nanoparticles. By detecting the shift in the plasma resonance peak of the silver nanoparticles, the dissolved oxygen (DO) content can be determined accurately. Great reconfigurability is one of the most significant advantages of the optofluidic device. By simply adjusting the flow rate ratio between the silver nanoprisms flow and the water sample flow, real-time continuous adjustment of the detection ranges of DO from 0 to 16 mg/L can be realized dynamically. The detection limit of this device is as low as 0.11 µM (3.52 µg/L) for DO measurement. Thus, the present optofluidic system has a wide range of potential applications in fields of biomedical analyses and water sensing.