"Oxidative etching-aggregation" of silver nanoparticles by melamine and electron acceptors: an innovative route toward ultrasensitive and versatile functional colorimetric sensors.

An innovative and versatile functional colorimetric sensor for melamine (MA) and H(2)O(2) was developed with simplicity, excellent selectivity and ultrasensitivity. The detection mechanism was based on the "oxidative etching-aggregation" of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by the cooperation effect of MA and electron acceptors such as H(2)O(2), ozone or Fe(NO(3))(3). The detection limits of this method for MA could reach as low as 0.08 nM, 0.16 nM and 3 nM when H(2)O(2), ozone or Fe(NO(3))(3) was used as an electron acceptor, respectively. When using H(2)O(2) as a typical electron acceptor, the method enabled the detection of H(2)O(2) with a detection limit of 0.2 nM. This proposed method offered a new way to design MA and H(2)O(2) sensors and might be easily extended to detect other nucleophilic reagents and electron acceptors based on colorimetric sensors.