Interaction of Colloidal Silver Nanoparticles with Ni2+: Sensing Application

We report on synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) capped with specific thiol suitable to detect heavy metal ions in water. The sensing mechanism is based on a change of an optical properties of the silver colloids, namely the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) when small amounts of contaminants are present in solution. We detected a specific sensitivity to nickel ions and we investigated the interaction of the AgNPs with Ni2+ in the concentration range of 0.5–2.0 ppm