Abstract
For decades, law enforcement officials have been using luminol as a tool to detect trace amounts of blood at crime scenes. Blood detection is accomplished through a chemiluminescence (CL) reaction between the iron in haemoglobin from human blood and the functional group (–COO– ) from the luminol molecule; the iron acts as a catalyst in this chemical reaction between the luminol and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). With improvements in technology, luminol CL from the interaction with blood was also improved by enhancing its intensity with nanoparticles. Nanoparticles such as platinum (PtNPs), silver (AgNPs) and gold (AuNPs) have shown better improvements and more intense CL with luminol in blood detection. Thus, in this study, AuNPs were initially synthesised conventionally using chemicals such as sodium borohydride and many others added to luminol to improve the CL intensity. Again, with developing technologies, the green synthesis of these NPs including AuNPs is now possible. Several plant extracts from fruits, flowers, leaves and bulbs have been used in the synthesis of AuNPs but none of the AuNPs synthesised using green methods have been coupled with luminol in blood detection. Therefore, in this study, AuNPs were synthesised using the Crinum macowanii bulb water extract and added to luminol to compare the CL signals to those observed with AuNPs prepared by conventional methods. ..
Ph.D. (Chemistry)