The contamination of drinking water and food products by aluminium represents a serious health issue, as it is associated with chronic neurodegenerative diseases. Herein we report an analytical electrochemical method for the determination of aluminium(III) at glassy carbon electrodes, modified with commercially available tannic acid-capped gold nanoparticles. The combination of gold nanoparticles and tannic acid as capping/chelating agent results in an accurate and sensitive detection of aluminium(III) in aqueous solutions by square wave voltammetry (SWV). Employing the presented methodology, clear measurable signals are seen even at the low limit of 10.0 pM, markedly and usefully lower than the permissible level of 7.4 μM for drinking water as defined by the WHO and which compares favourably with alternative detection methods.

铝对饮用水和食品的污染代表着严重的健康问题，因为它与慢性神经退行性疾病有关。在这里，我们报告了一种分析电化学方法，用于测定玻璃碳电极上的铝（III），并用市售的单宁酸覆盖的金纳米颗粒进行修饰。金纳米颗粒和单宁酸作为封端剂/螯合剂的组合可通过方波伏安法（SWV）准确而灵敏地检测水溶液中的铝（III）。采用本发明的方法，即使在10.0 pM的下限，也可以看到清晰的可测量信号，明显且有用地低于WHO定义的饮用水7.4μM的允许水平，与替代检测方法相比具有优势。