Dithioacetal-mechanized mesoporous nanosensor for Hg(II) determination

This work describes the construction of a novel colorimetric nanosensor for Hg(II), based on mechanized mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN). The nanodevice is constructed by grafting new dithiocetal-based stimulus-responsive molecular gates on MSN loaded with a reporter dye. This nanosensor is able to detect Hg(II) in the range of concentrations from 154 pM to 31 nM, with a sensitivity of 29.9 a.u/μM and a detection limit as low as 60 pM. The device also shows high selectivity for Hg(II).