Gold nanoparticles-based SERS nanosensor for thiram and chloramphenicol monitoring in food samples: Insight into effects of analyte molecular structure on their sensing performance and signal enhancement

Abstract

Electrochemically synthesized gold nanoparticles (e-AuNPs) were deposited on aluminum substrates to fabricate effective surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) sensors for thiram and CAP monitoring in food samples, between which the thiram sensor showed better performance in terms of sensibility, reliability and practicability. Regarding that the differences in SERS performance of the two sensors were closely associated to the distinction in molecular structure of the two analytes, we investigated the effects of analyte molecular structure on the sensing performance, especially the enhancement factors (EFs), of the sensors. As the enhancement of SERS signal is explained by both chemical and electromagnetic mechanisms (CM and EM), the investigation was also carried out in two directions.