New Silver Nanosensor for Nickel Traces. Part II: Urinary Nickel Determination Associated to Smoking Addiction

Abstract

A new fluorescence silver nanosensor assisted by surfactant has been recently synthesized and applied to ultra trace nickel determination. The methodology was validated by the standard addition method and satisfactorily applied to nickel determination in urine without previous treatment, coming from subjects with different smoking addiction levels and second hand smokers. Within-day precision was better than 0.011 CV. The reproducibility (between-days precision) was also evaluated over 3 days by performing six determinations each day with a CV of 0.025. The proposed methodology represents a promising approach in the area of biological monitoring due to its low operation cost, simplicity of instrumentation, high sampling speed and non-polluting solvents. Obtained results of urinary nickel concentration were successfully correlated with the tobacco addiction.