Au@Ag-TGANPs based SERS for facile screening of thiabendazole and ferbam in liquid milk

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy based on thioglycolic acid (TGA) functionalized silver-coated gold nanoparticles (Au@Ag-TGANPs) was developed for the facile screening of thiabendazole (TBZ) and ferbam (0.025-10 ppm) in liquid milk for the first time. Results showed that silver-coated gold nanoparticles (Au@AgNPs) with a core size of 32 nm and a shell thickness of 5 nm was successfully modified with 3 nm TGA. The sensitive Au@Ag-TGANPs could enhance TBZ and ferbam signals by factors of 6.4 x 10(4) and 9.8 x 10(4), respectively, and achieved the detection of TBZ and ferbam with limits of detection of 0.12 and 0.003 ppm, R-2 of 0.988 and 0.9821, percent recoveries of 88-103% and of 87.2-103.5%, and relative standard deviations of 4.1-9.2% and 3.5-8.3%, respectively. The current simple and green method could thus be used to detect other unsafe chemicals in future studies. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

A surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy method using silver-coated gold nanoparticles was developed for the screening of chemicals in liquid milk, achieving good detection results. This simple method could be used for detecting other unsafe chemicals in the future.