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Tuesday, 9th May 2006 (5439 views)

A chemical reaction that makes a gold nanoparticle solution turn from blue to red in the presence of lead could detect hazardous lead and other contaminants in paint simply and instantly.

Chemists at the University of Illinois have developed a lead sensor much like litmus paper, using a compound of DNA and gold nanoparticles, which will be cheaper and easier to use than current methods of lead paint analysis.

Researchers Yi Lu and Juewen Liu believe that their discoveries could be adapted to create sensors capable of detecting a number of different metal ions such as cadmium, mercury and zinc, as well as their levels of concentration which affects the intensity of the colour change.

The gold nanoparticle-DNA technology has potential applications in a number of fields, including developmental biology, clinical toxicology and environmental maintenance.

The results of the experiment have been written up as a report, which is available in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

 

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