A simply visual and rapidly colorimetric detection of Hg2+ in cosmetics based on gold nanoparticles modified by sulfadiazine

Mercury is one of the most potentially toxic metals, which is much harmful to the human health. Therefore, It is great important to detect mercury ions . In this work, proposed was a simply visual and rapidly colorimetric strategy for detection of Hg 2+ based on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) modified with sulfadiazine (SDZ) and characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), UV–vis. The solution color from red to blue gray with increasing Hg 2+ concentration resulted from the aggregation of AuNPs with fine anti-interference. The limit of detection (LOD) is 1.0 μg·mL -1 by the naked eye, and 0.071 μg·mL -1 by UV–vis spectroscopy with the good linear relationship (R 2  = 0.994) indicating that AuNPs modified with sulfadiazine could be used for the quantitative determination of Hg 2+ . The selectivity of SDZ-AuNPs detection system for Hg 2+ is much more excellent compared with other interferents in cosmetics, which exhibit this sensor could be successfully applied to detect Hg 2+ in real samples.