Gold nanoparticles for enhanced chemiluminescence and determination of 2,4-dichlorophenol in environmental water samples

Abstract

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) of different sizes were synthesized by the citrate reduction method. It was found that AuNPs could enhance the chemiluminescence (CL) of the luminal-NaOH system and 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) could inhibit AuNPs-luminal-NaOH CL signals in alkaline solution. CL spectra, UV-visible spectra, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to investigate the CL mechanism. On the basis of the inhibition, a flow-injection CL method has been established for determination of 2,4-DCP in water samples. Under the optimized conditions, the linear range for determination of the 2,4-DCP was 0.1 × 10⁻⁶ to 20 × 10⁻⁶ g mL⁻¹, LOD (limit of detection, S/N = 3) was 1.36 × 10⁻⁸ g mL⁻¹, with RSD of 1.8% (n = 11). This method has been successfully used for analysis of 2,4-DCP in environmental water samples.