A localized surface plasmon resonance light scattering-based sensing of hydroquinone via the formed silver nanoparticles in system

Abstract In this contribution, a simple strategy for the detection of hydroquinone (HQ) is proposed based on the localized surface plasmon resonance light scattering (LSPR-LS) of the silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) formed through the modified silver mirror reaction. The redox reaction between HQ and silver ammonia occurred in the coexistence of sodium hydroxide and ammonia at room temperature, where silver ammonia was reduced by HQ and resulted in the formation of AgNPs without adding the AgNPs seeds. The formed AgNPs were demonstrated to be monodisperse and uniform by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image. We also studied the localized surface plasmon resonance absorption (LSPR-A) and LSPR-LS spectra using both a UV–vis spectrophotometer and a common spectrofluorometer, and obtained a good agreement between experiments. By carefully optimizing the amount of NaOH and ammonia of the reaction conditions, we were able to obtain the highest net intensity of LSPR-LS on the concentrations of HQ. On the basis of experimental studies, the LSPR-LS intensity enhanced linearly over the range 0.4–2.5 μmol L −1 with the corresponding limits of determination (3 σ ) of 70.6 nmol L −1 . With that, the present approach was applied to detect HQ in water samples with satisfactory results.