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In this work, a novel sandwich-type aptasensor was designed for the ultrasensitive recognition of trace mercury ions in water. Numerous oriented platinum nanotube arrays (PtNAs) were in-situ crystallized on a flexible electrode as a sensing interface, while thionine labelled Fe 3 O 4 /rGO nanocomposites as signal amplifiers. Both PtNAs/CF and nanocomposites were synthesized by easy hydrothermal processes. With their large surface area, it was favorable for electrochemical performance and immobilization of capture DNAs (cDNA) and report DNAs (rDNA). Upon the existence of Hg 2+ , partial linker DNAs were tightly bound with cDNAs through thymine-Hg 2+ -thymine pairing (T-Hg 2+ -T). Then rDNAs attached Fe 3 O 4 /rGO nanoprobes were fixed on the electrode through the match of remaining linker DNAs and rDNAs. Under the optimal conditions, the Hg 2+ aptasensor showed a synergistic amplification performance with a wide linear range from 0.1nM to 100 nM, as well as a low detection limit of 30 pM. Moreover, the as-prepared aptasensor also exhibited reliable performance for assay in real lake water samples.

In this work, we report a facile and green strategy for in situ and one step preparation of a novel 3D graphene/gold (G/Au) film. Triggering with unique driving force from hydrothermal growth, a 3D interlaced graphene framework with hierarchically porous structures was directly attached on a gold substrate pretreated with a self-assembled monolayer. Simultaneously, highly dispersive Au nanoparticles with tunable morphologies were anchored on the framework utilizing generated graphene as an endogenous reductant. Newly-designed 3D G/Au film possessed excellent properties of significantly large specific area, good electrical conductivity, high structure stability and substrate binding strength, etc. As a paradigm, an electrochemical Hg2+ biosensor was constructed on 3D G/Au film, in which an exonuclease III-assisted target recycling was introduced. Impressively, an ultralow detection limit of 50 aM (S/N=3), a wide linear range from 0.1 fM to 0.1μM, a high selectivity and a good reliability for Hg2+ assay in real water and serum samples were realized using prepared biosensor. It is highly envisioned that this work opens the door towards simply fabricating varying types of 3D graphene based hybrid films, and such G/Au film will have widespread applications in electroanalysis and electrocatalysis.