scholarly journals Sub-Part-Per-Billion Level Sensing of Fentanyl Residues from Wastewater Using Portable Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Sensing

Biosensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 370
Author(s):  
Boxin Zhang ◽  
Xingwei Hou ◽  
Cheng Zhen ◽  
Alan X. Wang

Detection of illicit drug residues from wastewater provides a new route toward community-level assessment of drug abuse that is critical to public health. However, traditional chemistry analytical tools such as high-performance liquid chromatography in tandem with mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) cannot meet the large-scale testing requirement in terms of cost, promptness, and convenience of use. In this article, we demonstrated ultra-sensitive and portable surface-enhanced Raman scattering sensing (SERS) of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, from sewage water and achieved quantitative analysis through principal component analysis and partial least-squares regression. The SERS substrates adopted in this application were synthesized by in situ growth of silver nanoparticles on diatomaceous earth films, which show ultra-high sensitivity down to 10 parts per trillion in artificially contaminated tap water in the lab using a commercial portable Raman spectrometer. Based on training data from artificially contaminated tap water, we predicted the fentanyl concentration in the sewage water from a wastewater treatment plant to be 0.8 parts per billion (ppb). As a comparison, the HPLC-MS confirmed the fentanyl concentration was below 1 ppb but failed to provide a specific value of the concentration since the concentration was too low. In addition, we further proved the validity of our SERS sensing technique by comparing SERS results from multiple sewage water treatment plants, and the results are consistent with the public health data from our local health authority. Such SERS sensing technique with ultra-high sensitivity down to sub-ppb level proved its feasibility for point-of-care detection of illicit drugs from sewage water, which is crucial to assess public health.

Coatings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 799
Author(s):  
Irina Boginskaya ◽  
Aliia Gainutdinova ◽  
Alexey Gusev ◽  
Karen Mailyan ◽  
Anton Mikhailitsyn ◽  
...  

Spectroscopy based on surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is widely used as a method with extremely high sensitivity for molecular and chemical analysis. We have developed thin-film sandwich structures, in which, when used as sensitive elements for detecting organic compounds at low concentrations, high-amplitude spectra of surface enhanced Raman scattering are observed. Using gas-phase cryochemical synthesis and thermal sputtering in vacuum, SERS active sandwich structures Ag–poly(chloro-p-xylylene)–Ag (Ag–PCPX–Ag) were obtained. In the process of creating sandwich structures, the upper silver film takes the form of a complex island topology with submicron sizes. A series of samples were made with different thicknesses of the polymer and upper silver layers. SERS spectra of the analyte chemically adsorbed on the film surface were obtained, demonstrating a significant amplification (up to 104) compared with the control sample. The dependence of the gain on the silver concentration is characterized by a maximum polymer layer thickness of 600 nm and a 30 nm thick upper silver layer. A selective amplification of the low molecular weight compound spectra with respect to proteins was observed. A semi-empirical model is proposed that is in good agreement with the experimental results.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (12) ◽  
pp. 4077-4082 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nan Qi ◽  
Bowei Li ◽  
Huiyan You ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Longwen Fu ◽  
...  

A quantitative sensitivity analysis for trace As(iii) ions was proposed based on the SERS technique on a zigzag microfluidic chip.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
yuwan Du ◽  
Dianpeng Han ◽  
Zhaoxia An ◽  
Jiang Wang ◽  
Zhixian Gao

Abstract Antibiotics have brought many benefits to public health systems worldwide since they were first used in the last century, yet with the overuse of antibiotics in clinical care and livestock farming, new public health issues have arisen.In our previous experiments, we found that the MacB gene in bovine raw milk ranked first among many drug resistance genes.In this paper, we present a strategy for the highly sensitive detection of the drug resistance gene MacB by combining clusters regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) with surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technology.This strategy integrates the specific gene identification capabilities of the CRISPR system, the ultra-sensitivity of SERS, the chemometric algorithm analysis and the simple separation properties of nanoparticles, eliminating the need for complex steps such as purification and gene amplification, offering the advantages of rapid, ultra-sensitive and highly specific detection, thus enabling more effective tongue safety. Keywords: CRISPR/dCas9; Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering; drug resistance gene MacB; gold nanoparticles.


Biosensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pilot ◽  
Signorini ◽  
Durante ◽  
Orian ◽  
Bhamidipati ◽  
...  

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has become a powerful tool in chemical, material and life sciences, owing to its intrinsic features (i.e., fingerprint recognition capabilities and high sensitivity) and to the technological advancements that have lowered the cost of the instruments and improved their sensitivity and user-friendliness. We provide an overview of the most significant aspects of SERS. First, the phenomena at the basis of the SERS amplification are described. Then, the measurement of the enhancement and the key factors that determine it (the materials, the hot spots, and the analyte-surface distance) are discussed. A section is dedicated to the analysis of the relevant factors for the choice of the excitation wavelength in a SERS experiment. Several types of substrates and fabrication methods are illustrated, along with some examples of the coupling of SERS with separation and capturing techniques. Finally, a representative selection of applications in the biomedical field, with direct and indirect protocols, is provided. We intentionally avoided using a highly technical language and, whenever possible, intuitive explanations of the involved phenomena are provided, in order to make this review suitable to scientists with different degrees of specialization in this field.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Abdel Razek ◽  
Ahmed B. Ayoub ◽  
Mohamed A. Swillam

Abstract Silver Nano-trees (AgNTs) were synthesized by one-step electroless method with different densities via water or ethylene glycol (EG) on silicon substrate in one minute. The density of AgNTs is controlled by changing the concentration of silver nitrate in etchant solution. The absorption of NTs fabricated via EG is higher than absorption of NTs without EG. The AgNTs are employed as substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and exhibit high sensitivity. The silver Nano-trees fabricated via ethylene glycol (AgNTs-EG) enhances the Raman spectrum of pyridine (Py) with higher enhancement factor. Moreover, the SERS-active substrates prepared by using EG were able to detect Pyridine with concentration as low as 0.005 mM, the ones fabricated by water could only detect Pyridine at concentration of 0.2 mM.


RSC Advances ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (70) ◽  
pp. 66056-66065 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongzhen Chen ◽  
Zhongxiao Song ◽  
Feng Chen ◽  
Jian Huang ◽  
Jing Wei ◽  
...  

Simply synthesizing Au core@Au–Ag alloy spine nanostructures with a highly tunable LSPR band and dense “hot spots” for SERS sensing.


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