Ag-coated tetrapod gold nanostars (Au@AgNSs) for acetamiprid determination in tea using SERS combined with microfluidics

Abstract

Acetamiprid is an organic and highly toxic compound. Despite being widely used as a pesticide agent on a large scale, acetamiprid poses numerous health risks to living organisms, particularly humans. Herein, a strategy for the detection of acetamiprid in tea employing surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technology incorporated with a microfluidic chip was developed. Significantly, a seed-mediated growth approach was utilized to engineer Ag-coated tetrapod gold nanostars (core–shell Au@AgNSs) with four sharp tips. The synthesized Au@AgNSs showed an enhancement factor of 7.2 × 10⁶. Solid works was used to figure out the two-channel microfluidic chip featuring four circular split hybrid structures, and COMSOL (Software for Multiphysics Simulation) was utilized to model the fusion effect between the substrate (Au@AgNSs) and the sample (acetamiprid). For the first time, the core–shell Au@AgNSs and acetamiprid were fused in the microfluidic channel to facilitate the detection of acetamiprid using SERS. The outcomes pointed out that the standard curve correlation coefficient between SERS intensity (876 cm⁻¹) and the concentration of acetamiprid in tea specimens was calculated as 0.991, while the limit of detection (LOD) was 0.048 ng mL⁻¹, which is well below the minimum limit set by the European Union (10 ng mL⁻¹). Thus, the developed technique combining SERS and microfluidics demonstrated high potential for the rapid and efficient detection of acetamiprid in tea.