Novel electrochemical sensing platform for quantitative monitoring of Hg(II) on DNA-assembled graphene oxide with target recycling.

This work designs a new electrochemical sensing platform for the quantitative monitoring of mercury ion (Hg(2+)) on poly-T(15) oligonucleotide-functionalized graphene oxide by coupling with DNase I-assisted target recycling amplification. The assay was carried out on the basis of T-Hg(2+)-T coordination chemistry by using target-induced dissociation of indicator-labeled poly-T(15) oligonucleotide from graphene oxide nanosheets. The electronic signal was amplified through DNase I-triggered target recycling. Experimental results indicated that the amperometric response of DNA-based sensing platform deceased with the increasing Hg(2+) concentration in the sample, and has a detection limit of 0.12nM with a dynamic working range of up to 50nM. Our strategy afforded exquisite selectivity for Hg(2+) against other environmentally related metal ions. More significantly, this methodology displayed high reproducibility and acceptable accuracy, thus representing an optional sensing scheme for the screening of Hg(2+) in environmental water samples.