A novel colorimetric sensor based on modified mesoporous silica nanoparticles for rapid on-site detection of nitrite.

A novel colorimetric sheet based on Griess reagent-doped mesoporous silica nanoparticles was developed for nitrite detection. Griess reagent was adsorbed on long-range ordered hexagonal mesoporous silica nanoparticles and developed ink-bottle pores with some disorder. When the modified nanoparticles were bound using starch to fabricate a thin (~ 313 μm) colorimetric sheet, spherical particles with a rougher surface and some distortion of their mesoporosity were observed. The sheet was used in conjunction with digital image colorimetry (DIC) and provides a wide linear range of 0.05 to 2.50 mg L with a low detection limit (15.0 μg L-NO, equal to 4.5 μg L NO-N), good inter-day precision (1.93%RSD), and excellent precision (2.67% relative error). The colorimetric sensors produced from the sheet costs only 0.04 USD each, while the DIC uses a standard smartphone for photographic detection. The method developed offers an easier and cheaper means of conducting rapid on-site determination of nitrite in water with reliable quantitative results. Graphical abstract.