Wide-field determination of aqueous mercury(II) based on tail-extensible DNA fluorescent probe with tunable dynamic range

Highlights: • A series of tail-extensible fluorescent probes were designed. • An universal method for Hg²⁺ detection with wide dynamic range. • The tunable dynamic range from 0.035 to 0.2 pM to 8.0–120.0 pM was achieved. • Advantages of this method are exactly what the detection of Hg²⁺ need. Mercury (Hg) is one of the most hazardous pollutants, widely distributed in water, atmosphere, and soil, while the Hg contents from different sources are greatly different. Until now, numerous reported methods are only suitable for a kind of sample because they cannot reconcile sensitivity and linear range. In this work, a tail-extensible DNA fluorescent probe for "turn on" detection of Hg²⁺ with tunable dynamic range and high sensitivity was developed, which was based on segmental hybridization between silver nanoclusters (AgNCs)-covered DNA and different guanine-rich DNAs. By adding adenine-guanine-cytosine (AGC) base repeats as a tail of the guanine-rich DNA, the formation constant of T-Hg²⁺-T complex was effectively modulated within two orders of magnitude. Based on it, a tunable dynamic range from 0.035 to 0.2 pM to 8.0–120.0 pM was achieved by combining four fluorescent probes with different tail lengths. The Hg²⁺contents from different sources were successfully measured. This evidenced the proposed sensor's application toward wide-field detection, which is useful for the direct and objective comparison of results from different sources, and therefore providing a way for solving the shortcomings of reported methods for Hg²⁺ detection. Additionally,this present method is simple, cost-effective and time-saving, ultrasensitive and highly selective, which is favorable for expanding its applications and subsequent mercury pollution control.