Sensitive Colorimetric Visualization of Perfluorinated Compounds Using Poly(ethylene glycol) and Perfluorinated Thiols Modified Gold Nanoparticles

In this work, we have developed a novel sensing strategy employing mixed poly(ethylene glycol)-terminated (PEG-thiols) and perfluoroalkyl-terminated (F-thiols) alkanethiols modified gold nanoparticles (Au@PEG-F NPs) as a probe to detect perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) from water samples. PEG-thiols with high density and long carbon chains make the Au NPs probe well-dispersed in solution and stable even in high concentration of salt solution; F-thiols provide specific fluorous-fluorous interactions to PFCs, which results in adsorption of PFCs on Au@PEG-F NPs. The adsorbed PFCs cause the aggregation of Au@PEG-F NPs probes and thus induce the insolubility of probes and precipitation directly from reaction solution due to the superhydrophobicity of perfluorocarbon monolayers, leading to color and absorbance response of the assay to PFCs. The preparation of the Au@PEG-F NPs probe is very simple, and the colorimetric assay based on this mechanism for the detection of PFCs is selective and convenient. Combined with UV-vis spectrophotometry, the assay demonstrates good sensitivities to PFCs with wide linear range. In the designed concentration range, the response of the colorimetric assay to long-chain PFCs (perfluoroalkyl chain ≥7) is discerned even as the concentration of these PFCs is as low as 10 μg L(-1). This low-cost and sensitive assay shows great potential to measure total PFCs in water samples. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of the specific fluorous-fluorous interactions and Au NPs based probes for colorimetric recognition for PFCs.