Ultrasensitive Au Nanooctahedron Micropinball Sensor for Mercury Ions.

Mercury ion (Hg) is one of the most toxic heavy metals that has severe adverse effects on the environment and human organs even at very low concentrations. Therefore, highly sensitive and selective detection of Hg is desirable. Here, we introduce plasmonic micropinball constructed from Au nanooctahedron as a three-dimensional surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) platform, enabling ultrasensitive detection of trace Hg ions.