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Polyethylenimine-stabilized silver nanoclusters act as an oxidoreductase mimic for colorimetric determination of chromium(VI)

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Abstract

A new and efficient assay is proposed for the photometric determination of Cr6+ by employing polyethylenimine-stabilized Ag nanoclusters (PEI-AgNCs) as an oxidoreductase mimic. Cr6+ with certain oxidicability is able to specifically react with 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB), giving a color change from colorless to blue indicating the presence of Cr6+. However, the redox kinetics is so slow that the sensitivity obtained for Cr6+ determination is very poor. It is interestingly found that PEI-AgNCs can act as an oxidoreductase-like nanozyme to significantly promote the sluggish reaction, making it possible to rapidly detect toxic Cr6+ with remarkably enhanced performance. With the use of PEI-AgNCs, fast and convenient determination of Cr6+ was realized, with a limit of detection as low as 1.1 μM. Additionally, the proposed assay exhibited excellent selectivity; other ions, including Cr3+, hardly affected the determination of Cr6+.

Polyethylenimine-stabilized silver nanoclusters (PEI-AgNCs) act as an oxidoreductase mimic to catalyze the redox reaction of Cr6+ and 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB), enabling the high-performance colorimetric determination of toxic Cr6+.

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Funding

The work was supported in part by the Social Development Fund of Zhenjiang City (No. SH2018011). Xiangheng Niu was supported by the Cultivation Project for Excellent Young Teachers of Jiangsu University (No. 4111310004).

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Author notes

  1. Qiangsheng Xue and Xin Li contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhangjiagang, 215600, China

    Qiangsheng Xue, Yinxian Peng & Hongbing Peng

  2. Institute of Green Chemistry and Chemical Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China

    Xin Li, Peng Liu & Xiangheng Niu

  3. School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, 212003, China

    Yinxian Peng

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  1. Qiangsheng Xue
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  2. Xin Li
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  5. Hongbing Peng
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Correspondence to Yinxian Peng or Xiangheng Niu.

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Xue, Q., Li, X., Peng, Y. et al. Polyethylenimine-stabilized silver nanoclusters act as an oxidoreductase mimic for colorimetric determination of chromium(VI). Microchim Acta 187, 263 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-020-04232-8

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