Photoelectrochemical Sensor with a Z-Scheme Fe₂O₃/CdS Heterostructure for Sensitive Detection of Mercury Ions

Mercury (Hg2+) is a highly toxic element and can seriously affect human health. This work proposed a photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensor with a Z-scheme Fe2O3/CdS heterostructure and two thymine-rich DNA strands (DNA-1 and Au@DNA-2) for sensitive detection of Hg2+. The light excitation of the Fe2O3/CdS composite accelerated the electron transfer among Fe2O3, CdS, and the electrode to produce a stable photocurrent response. Upon the recognition of Hg2+ to thymine bases (T) in two DNA strands to form a stable T-Hg2+-T biomimetic structure, the photocurrent response increased with the increasing concentration of Hg2+ due to the opening of electronic transmission channels from Au nanoparticles to Fe2O3/CdS nanocomposite. Under the optimal conditions screened by the Box-Behnken experiments, the proposed PEC sensor showed excellent analytical performance for Hg2+ detection with high sensitivity, a detection limit of 0.20 pM at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3, high selectivity, a detectable concentration range of 1 pM-100 nM, and acceptable stability. The good recovery and low relative standard deviation for the analysis of Hg2+ in lake and tap water samples demonstrated the potential application of the designed Z-scheme Fe2O3/CdS heterostructure in the PEC detection of heavy metal ions.