Metallic nanoparticles will help determine the concentration of volatiles
Scientists of the Faculty of Chemistry and the Faculty of Materials Science of Lomonosov Moscow State University have come up with a new approach, thanks to which, using metal nanoparticles, it was possible to increase the sensitivity in the determination of volatile compounds, including chlorine. The research is published in the journal Talanta.
Metal nanoparticles are widely used in analytical chemistry. The fields of application of these nanoparticles include optical sensors based on surface plasmon resonance (the phenomenon of surface excitation of plasmons by light) on solid carriers. The advantages of modern optical sensors are considered to be their high sensitivity. However, these devices are imperfect due to the fact that particles stick together in collisions and at high ionic strength (high intensity of the electric field created by ions).
Scientists have proposed separating nanoparticles from ions and chemical compounds, while maintaining their sensitivity. So chemists came up with a technique that combines optical detection using paper tester strips coated with triangular silver nanoparticles and dynamic gas extraction (extracting a substance from a solution or dry mixture using liquefied gases). Experts have shown the prospects of this method using the example of chlorine determination. Chlorine is often used to purify water, as this substance destroys the outer shell of bacteria and viruses. Nevertheless, the problem of determining the concentration of chlorine in water remains relevant, since the existing methods are not sensitive enough.
“The developed method makes it possible to determine small amounts of gaseous chlorine in the presence of large concentrations of foreign compounds without any sample preparation. The approach under consideration can be applied to other analytical systems based on metal nanoparticles, which opens up wide opportunities for the further development of this area of chemical analysis, “said one of the authors of the work, a student of the Department of Analytical Chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry, Moscow State University, Alexei Furletov.
The study was carried out jointly with scientists from the Southern Federal University, Rostov State Medical University, State Research Institute of Chemical Reagents and Highly Pure Chemical Substances (FSUE IREA). S
ource: indicator.ru