Flexible SERS platform using AuNPs on polyetheramine-modified cellulose nanofibers for pesticide monitoring
摘要
As a powerful detection technique, the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has gained significant attention owing to its ability to reveal unique fingerprint information. Especially, the flexible SERS substrate due to its exceptional features such as portability, ease of integration of nanomaterials, rapid in-situ and on-site detection makes it an ideal platform for the real-time detection. This paper proposes a flexible SERS substrate based on carrot cellulose nanofibrils (CCNFs) modified with polyetheramine (M2070) via the freeze-drying technique followed by the photochemical decoration of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The amphiphilic structure of M2070 promotes the abundant chelation sites, facilitating the uniform growth and strong adherence of AuNPs throughout the CCNF-M2070 matrix. The fabricated flexible AuNPs@CCNF-M2070 SERS substrate exhibit superior Raman enhancement, low limit of detection of 1.08 × 10–10 M, excellent mechanical durability for over 100 cycles of bending and twisting test, high homogeneity, and reproducibility towards the detection of pesticide, thiram with a relative standard deviation value of less than 10%. The swab-sampling approach has been employed to explore the real-time detection of thiram in apple surface. The proposed flexible substrate paves the way for sustainable SERS material especially for food safety and environmental monitoring.