Label-free gold nanoparticles for the determination of neomycin

A new spectrophotometric method for the determination of neomycin has been developed. The method is based on aggregation of label-free gold nanoparticles leading to change in absorption spectra and color of the solution. Influence of different factors (the concentration of ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA), pH, the concentrations of neomycin and the nanoparticles) on the aggregation and analytical performance of the method was investigated. EDTA plays an important role not only as a masking agent to eliminate interferences of metal cations but strongly affects the sensitivity of the nanoparticles relative to neomycin. The method allows to determine neomycin with detection limit of 28 ng mL(-1). It was applied to analysis of eye- and ear-drops. The sample pretreatment is simply done by diluting the formulation with water. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.