A wavelength-modulated localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) optical fiber sensor for sensitive detection of mercury(II) ion by gold nanoparticles-DNA conjugates

The study presented herein investigated an easy preparation, high performance, wavelength-modulated LSPR optical fiber chemosensor coated by gold nanospheres(AuNS) for Hg2+ detection based on thymine-Hg2+-thymine base pair mismatches and the coupled plasmonic resonance effect.Utilizing electrostatic self-assembly method, the high density and dispersivity monolayer AuNS coated LSPR fiber sensor had the near field refractive index sensitivity up to 2016 nm/RIU. The single-strand probe DNA served as a binding element for free AuNS labelled-target DNA conjugates was attached to the monolayer AuNS by Au-S bond. In the present of Hg2+, the coupled plasmonic resonance band between monolayer AuNS and free AuNS was produced by thymine-Hg2+-thymine structure and leaded to red-shift of LSPR peak. Under the optimal conditions, the enlarged red-shift in peak of LSPR spectroscopy was linearly with the concentration of Hg2+ in the range from 1.0 × 10−9 to 5.0 × 10−8 M with the coefficient of 0.976. The limit of detection was 0.7 nM(S/N = 3). The specificity of the sensor was proved high by evaluating the response to other heavy metal ions. The proposed fiber sensor provided a label-free, miniature, low-cost approach for the Hg2+ detection and had potential in real environmental evaluations.