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Nanoparticle-based sensors

Striped cation-trappers

Nature Materials volume 11, pages 913–914 (2012)Cite this article

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Toxic metal cations in environmental samples can be detected with ultrahigh sensitivity through measurements of the tunnelling current across crosslinked films of nanoparticles decorated with striped monolayers of organic ligands.

Owing to the increasing amount of pollutant metals emanating from technical processes, mining or traffic1, the determination of the amount of metal ions in the environment — in particular heavy metal ions such as mercury and cadmium, which, because of their hazardous potential2, are priority analytes — has long been a focus of concern. Indeed, the efficient management of aquifers and other sources of clean water would require that the concentration of metal species be monitored continuously and with high spatial resolution3. However, this requires careful sampling, clean-up and analysis, and cannot be accomplished by current instrumentation, which is laboratory-based. Moreover, ideal sensors should not only be selective and sensitive, but should also operate over a broad concentration range and have fast response times, in particular for dynamic speciation analysis for more reliable bioavailability prediction and risk assessment4. Writing in Nature Materials, Bartosz Grzybowski, Francesco Stellacci and co-workers describe a solid-state sensing device that may come closer to these ideals5.

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Figure 1: Striped-nanoparticle sensors5.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Knut Rurack is at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), Richard-Willstätter-Straße 11, D-12489 Berlin, Germany,

    Knut Rurack

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  1. Knut Rurack
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Correspondence to Knut Rurack.

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Rurack, K. Striped cation-trappers. Nature Mater 11, 913–914 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3469

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