A surface enhanced Raman scattering quantitative analytical platform for detection of trace Cu coupled the catalytic reaction and gold nanoparticle aggregation with label-free Victoria blue B molecular probe

With development of economy and society, there is an urgent need to develop convenient and sensitive methods for detection of Cu2+ pollution in water. In this article, a simple and sensitive SERS sensor was proposed to quantitative analysis of trace Cu2+ in water. The SERS sensor platform was prepared a common gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-SiO2 sol substrate platform by adsorbing HSA, coupling with the catalytic reaction of Cu2+-ascorbic acid (H(2)A)-dissolved oxygen, and using label-free Victoria blue B (VBB) as SEAS molecular probes. The SERS sensor platform response to the AuNP aggregations by hydroxyl radicals (center dot OH) oxidizing from the Cu2+ catalytic reaction, which caused the SERS signal enhancement. Therefore, by monitoring the increase of SERS signal, Cu2+ in water can be determined accurately. The results show that the SERS sensor platforms owns a linear response with a range from 0.025 to 25 mu mol/L Cu2+, and with a detection limit of 0.008 mu mol/L. In addition, the SERS method demonstrated good specificity for Cu2+, which can determined accurately trace Cu2+ in water samples, and good recovery and accuracy are obtained for the water samples. With its high selectivity and good accuracy, the sensitive SERS quantitative analysis method is expected to be a promising candidate for determining copper ions in environmental monitoring and food safety.