Evaluation of the Colorimetric Performance of Unmodified Citrate-Stabilized Silver Nanoparticles for Copper (II) Sensing in Water

In this study, the colorimetric performance of unmodified citrate-stabilized silver nanoparticles (cit-AgNP) for Cu2+ detection was investigated. Cit-AgNP was successfully synthesized using the modified Creighton method with sodium borohydride as reducing agent and trisodium citrate as stabilizing agent. The resulting nanoparticle was yellow in color, characteristic of AgNP. The absorbance peak was determined at 400 nm using UV Vis analysis while for morphology, the particles were spherical in shape with an average diameter of 11 nm determined by TEM analysis. In the presence of increasing Cu2+ concentration, the yellow cit-AgNP turned orange and showed decreasing absorbance at 400 nm with simultaneous emergence of additional peak at 450 nm. These changes were attributed to the nanoparticle aggregation confirmed by TEM analysis. A calibration curve generated showed that the absorbance ratio 450/400 nm is directly proportional to Cu2+ concentration from 0 to 40x10-4 M with good linear fit at R2 = 0.9749. The detection and quantification limits were determined to be 6.59x10-4 M and 21.97x10-4 M, respectively. Overall, the study demonstrated the potential of the assay for Cu2+ sensing application.