Rapid naked eye detection of arginine by pomegranate peel extract stabilized gold nanoparticles

The present work has been proposed for a simple colorimetric detection of arginine by the use of four different types of biogenic gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), stabilized by aqueous pomegranate (Punica granatum) peel extract. The detection is based on the shift in the surface plasmon resonance peak (SPR), which is attributed to the aggregation of the biosynthesized NPs in presence of arginine. The detection limits of arginine is 10−6 M. We have also examined the effect of pH, sensitivity and selectivity of the AuNPs towards the analyte. The present system is simple, cost effective, eco-friendly, and avoids tedious procedure for surface modification of nanoparticles to detect the analytes from aqueous solution.