Investigation of the binding of AuNPs–6‐mercaptopurine and the sensitive detection of 6‐mercaptopurine using resonance Rayleigh light scattering

A highly sensitive method for the detection of 6‐mercaptopurine (MP) by resonance Rayleigh light scattering (RLS) method was developed. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were synthesized by a modified seed method and characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). AuNPs were bound to MP via covalent bonding to form the MP–AuNPs complex, which increased the RLS intensity of MP at 347 nm (increased by 65.7%). Under optimum conditions, the magnitude of the enhanced RLS intensity for MP–AuNPs was proportional to MP concentration in the range 0.0681–1.702 μg mL^?1. The linear regression equation was represented as follows: ΔI _RLS = 9.31 + 82.42c (r  = 0.9948). The limit of detection (LOD, 3σ) was 3.32 ng mL^?1. The system was applied successfully to detect MP in pharmaceuticals. MP recoveries were 99.9–101.7% with a relative standard deviation (RSD) (n  = 5) of 0.59–0.77% for three synthetic samples, and 97.5–110.0% with an RSD of 0.98–2.10% (n =  5) for tablet samples.