Rapid Visual Detection of Lead and Mercury via Enhanced Crosslinking Aggregation of Aptamer-Labeled Gold Nanoparticles.

A homogenous method is proposed for rapid detection of Pb and Hg using gold nanoparticles conjugated with T,G-rich aptamer. In presence of target ions the modified gold nanoparticles aggregate resulting in change of the solution colour from pink (for scattered nanoparticles) to blue (for their aggregates). Besides, the amplification system for this assay was proposed.