Rapid and fingerprinted monitoring of pesticide methyl parathion on the surface of fruits/leaves as well as in surface water enabled by gold nanorods based casting-and-sensing SERS platform

摘要： An effective, simple and portable gold nanorod (Au NR) based casting-and-sensing surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) platform was developed for rapid and fingerprinted detection of pesticide methyl parathion. Monodispersed Au NRs with an average length of 60 nm and an aspect ratio of ca. 3 were synthesized through a seed mediated method and then systematically characterized. After a proof-of-concept detection for methyl parathion in DI water and on solid surface, the sensing platform was further applied to real samples (lake water, orange, apple and plant leave) contaminated with methyl parathion. The results show that the sensitivity of the SERS sensor for methyl parathion was satisfactory for real application, with detection limits of 1 μM in spiked lake water and 110-440 ng/cm2 on the surface of various fruits and plant leaves. This study indicates that the developed casting-and-sensing SERS sensor shows great promise to secure agricultural, food and environmental safety.