Highly Sensitive and Rapid Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopic (SERS) Determination of Thiram on the Epidermis of Fruits and Vegetables Using A Silver Nanoparticle-Modified Fibrous Swab

SERS detection of thiram using a 3D sea cucumber-like composite flexible porous substrate

Nowadays, trace detection of thiram is in urgent demand due to its widespread application in agriculture and significant harmful effects on public health. In this work, a three-dimensional (3D) sea cucumber-like flexible porous surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate composed of a poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membrane, ZnO nanorods, gold films, and Ag nanoparticles (Ag/Au/ZnO/P) has been established for the highly sensitive detection of thiram. The substrate takes advantage of the 3D morphology of the Ag/Au/ZnO system on a flexible porous PVDF membrane to produce abundant plasmonic hot spots. Meanwhile, the employment of an AgNPs/Au shell system combined the benefits of both gold and silver metals, thus guaranteeing stable and sensitive detection. With 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (4-MBA) as a probe molecule, the Ag/Au/ZnO/P substrate exhibited excellent linear detection in the range of 10-11-10-5 M, with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.99 and an enhancement cofactor of 7.09 × 107. The substrate exhibited excellent uniformity with a related standard deviation (RSD) value of 3.82% and demonstrated high stability during a 15 d-storage test. In addition, the substrate could detect thiram in an aqueous solution at concentrations as low as 10-10 M with excellent selectivity. Meanwhile, thiram on the surface of apple peel could be easily detected by the Ag/Au/ZnO/P substrate with the "paste-and-peel" method in less than 10 s, and the detection limit could be as low as 0.48 ng cm-2. Overall, the remarkable performance of the Ag/Au/ZnO/P SERS substrate demonstrated its great potential for the environmental monitoring of thiram.

Flexible, high-performance and facile PVA/cellulose/Ag SERS chips for in-situ and rapid detection of thiram pesticide in apple juice

Flexible surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensors have gained significant attention for their practical applications in detecting chemical and biological molecules. However, the fabrication of flexible SERS chips is often complex and requires advanced techniques. In this study, we present a simple and rapid method to design a flexible SERS chip based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), cellulose, and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using mechanical stirring and drying methods. Benefiting from the abundant hydroxide groups on cellulose, AgNPs easily adhere and distribute evenly on the cellulose surface. The combination of PVA and cellulose forms a bendable film-like SERS chip. This chip allows convenient immersion in liquid analyte samples. We demonstrate its effectiveness by using it to detect the thiram pesticide in apple juice using the "dip and dry" method, achieving an outstanding detection limit of 1.01 × 10-8 M. The Raman signals on the SERS chips exhibit high repeatability and reproducibility, with relative standard deviation values below 10%. These findings show that the flexible PVA/cellulose/Ag SERS chips is a strong candidate for real-world analysis.

Quantitative SERS sensing mediated by internal standard Raman signal from silica nanoparticles in flexible polymer matrix

Attributed to poor signal uniformity and external interference, ultrasensitive surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) still faces difficulties in the reliable and quantitative detection of trace molecules. Here, a facile Ag/Si/sodium carboxy methyl cellulose (NaCMC) film with internal standard (IS) was promoted for quantitative determination of thiram. The effects of preparation conditions on SERS activity of the film were systematically investigated and then a flexible SERS substrate with high sensitivity and uniformity was fabricated. The enhancement factor was calculated to be 1.12 × 10⁶ and SERS mapping was recorded with a relative standard deviation value of 19.8% by utilizing 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (4-MBA) as target molecule. Additionally, the dominant contribution of the IS from encapsulated Si nanoparticles (NPs) was confirmed in the quantitative assay of 4-MBA and thiram, facilitating attractive fitting coefficients (R²) as 0.991 and 0.998. Besides that, the proposed flexible film was conducted to scrub trace thiram from the surfaces of apple, orange, and cucumber, resulting in recoveries of 89%, 94%, and 91%. A smart and facile quantitative SERS substrate was developed here for monitoring trace biochemical molecules, verifying its potential utilizations in monitoring pesticide residues.

[Determination of thiram in wheat flour and flour improvers by high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection]

福美双是重要的二硫代氨基甲酸酯(DTC)杀菌剂,在小麦中使用限量以1 mg/kg二硫化碳(CS₂)计。目前我国相关检测方法是针对二硫代氨基甲酸酯一类的化合物,二硫代氨基甲酸酯通过与酸反应生成CS₂,采用光谱法或色谱法测定CS₂,间接实现二硫代氨基甲酸酯测定。该方法无法特异性实现对福美双的检测,因此开展小麦粉中福美双检测方法的研究具有重要意义。研究建立了高效液相色谱-二极管阵列检测(HPLC-DAD)测定小麦粉及面粉改良剂中福美双的分析方法。小麦粉及面粉改良剂样品用乙腈溶剂提取后,经涡旋、振荡、冰水浴超声和静置后取上清液过滤,供高效液相色谱测定。采用ZORBAX plus-C18色谱柱(150 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm)分离,以水-乙腈为流动相洗脱分析,在波长280 nm下检测。实验优化了提取溶剂及其体积、振荡超声条件、色谱柱、检测波长、流动相等条件。该方法采用保留时间和紫外光谱图定性,外标法定量。该方法在线性范围内(0.30~30.0 μg/mL)线性关系良好,相关系数(r²)为0.99999。对小麦粉及面粉改良剂进行1.5、3.0、15 mg/kg 3个水平的加标回收试验,福美双的回收率为89.6%~98.3%,相对标准偏差为1.6%~3.9%(n=6)。方法的检出限和定量限分别为0.5 mg/kg和1.5 mg/kg。该方法采用溶剂提取,操作简单,分析时间短,特异性好,具有精密度高、重复性好、检出限低等特点,适用于小麦粉及面粉改良剂中福美双快速、准确的定量检测。

Onsite/on-field analysis of pesticide and veterinary drug residues by a state-of-art technology: A review

Pesticides and veterinary drugs are generally employed to control pests and insects in crop and livestock farming. However, remaining residues are considered potentially hazardous to human health and the environment. Therefore, regular monitoring is required for assessing and legislation of pesticides and veterinary drugs. Various approaches to determining residues in various agricultural and animal food products have been reported. Most analytical methods involve sample extraction, purification (cleanup), and detection. Traditional sample preparation is time-consuming labor-intensive, expensive, and requires a large amount of toxic organic solvent, along with high probability for the decomposition of a compound before the analysis. Thus, modern sample preparation techniques, such as the quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe method, have been widely accepted in the scientific community for its versatile application; however, it still requires a laboratory setup for the extraction and purification processes, which also involves the utilization of a toxic solvent. Therefore, it is crucial to elucidate recent technologies that are simple, portable, green, quick, and cost-effective for onsite and infield residue detections. Several technologies, such as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, quantum dots, biosensing, and miniaturized gas chromatography, are now available. Further, several onsite techniques, such as ion mobility-mass spectrometry, are now being upgraded; some of them, although unable to analyze field sample directly, can analyze a large number of compounds within very short time (such as time-of-flight and Orbitrap mass spectrometry). Thus, to stay updated with scientific advances and analyze organic contaminants effectively and safely, it is necessary to study all of the state-of-art technology.

Advances in the Detection of Dithiocarbamate Fungicides: Opportunities for Biosensors

Dithiocarbamate fungicides (DTFs) are widely used to control various fungal diseases in crops and ornamental plants. Maximum residual limits in the order of ppb-ppm are currently imposed by legislation to prevent toxicity problems associated with excessive use of DTFs. The specific analytical determination of DTFs is complicated by their low solubility in water and organic solvents. This review summarizes the current analytical procedures used for the analysis of DTF, including chromatography, spectroscopy, and sensor-based methods and discusses the challenges related to selectivity, sensitivity, and sample preparation. Biosensors based on enzymatic inhibition demonstrated potential as analytical tools for DTFs and warrant further research, considering novel enzymes from extremophilic sources. Meanwhile, Raman spectroscopy and various sensors appear very promising, provided the selectivity issues are solved.