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Visual and photometric determination of histamine using unmodified gold nanoparticles

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Abstract

The authors describe a colorimetric approach for on-site monitoring of histamine based on the use of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) that have a negatively charged surface due to the presence of adsorbed citrate ions. Histamine has two basic functional groups, an aliphatic amino group and an imidazole ring. Under the experimental conditions, the protonated aliphatic amino group drives the imidazole ring into close proximity to the AuNPs due to electrostatic attraction. This accelerates the replacement of citrate ions by the imidazole ring because of the strong affinity between imidazole and AuNPs. As a consequence, the two groups synergistically induce the aggregation of the AuNPs and trigger a visible color change from red to blue. The minimum visually detectable histamine concentration is 1.81 μM, which is comparable to the limit of detection (LOD) of the electrochemical approaches at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3:1. When using absorbance at 522 nm, the LOD is lowered to 38 nM. The method was applied to the determination of histamine in fish samples.

Schematic of the detection scheme: Histamine induces gold nanoparticle aggregation and triggers a visible color change. The minimum visually detectable histamine concentration by bare eye is 1.81 μM. When using absorbance at 522 nm, the LOD is lowered to 38 nM.

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Acknowledgements

The work was finically supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 21405064 and 21575053), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Normal University (14XLA07), the Jiangsu Province Natural Science Foundation of China (BK20140233), Higher Education Institute Natural Science Foundation (16KJA150006), and Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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  1. Conghui Huang and Shuzhan Wang have equal contribution to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Green Synthesis for Functional Materials, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, 221116, China

    Conghui Huang, Shuzhan Wang, Wenfeng Zhao, Chenghua Zong, Qingquan Zhang & Xiaojun Liu

  2. Department of Physical Sciences, Charleston Southern University, North Charleston, SC, 29406, USA

    Aiye Liang

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  1. Conghui Huang
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Correspondence to Qingquan Zhang or Xiaojun Liu.

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Huang, C., Wang, S., Zhao, W. et al. Visual and photometric determination of histamine using unmodified gold nanoparticles. Microchim Acta 184, 2249–2254 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-017-2253-9

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