A Portable Smart-Phone Readout Device for the Detection of Mercury Contamination Based on an Aptamer-Assay Nanosensor.

ABSTRACT: The detection of environmental mercury (Hg) contamination requires complex and expensive instruments and professional technicians. We present a simple, sensitive, and portable Hg2+ detection system based on a smartphone and colorimetric aptamer nanosensor. A smartphone equipped with a light meter app was used to detect, record, and process signals from a smartphone-based microwell reader (MR S-phone), which is composed of a simple light source and a miniaturized assay platform. The colorimetric readout of the aptamer nanosensor is based on a specific interaction between the selected aptamer and Hg2+, which leads to a color change in the reaction solution due to an aggregation of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The MR S-phone-based AuNPs-aptamer colorimetric sensor system could reliably detect

SUBMITTER: Xiao W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5134530 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature