The authors describe a strategy for fluorometric determination of lead(II) that is based on the suppression of the surface energy transfer that occurs between acridine orange and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). As a result, the fluorescence of the system is recovered. Under optimized conditions, the enhancement of fluorescence intensity is related to the concentration of lead(II) in the 44nM to 4.8μM range, with a detection limit of 13nM. The relative standard deviations for 11 determinations at concentrations of 0.386μM, 1.93μM and 2.89μM are ...