Simultaneous SERS detection of illegal food additives rhodamine B and basic orange II based on Au nanorod-incorporated melamine foam

Yingying Sun; Wan Li; Liqing Zhao; Fengyong Li; Yunfei Xie; Weirong Yao; Wenqiu Liu; Zhaosheng Lin

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.129741

Simultaneous SERS detection of illegal food additives rhodamine B and basic orange II based on Au nanorod-incorporated melamine foam

Food Chem. 2021 Apr 3:357:129741. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.129741. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yingying Sun¹, Wan Li², Liqing Zhao³, Fengyong Li⁴, Yunfei Xie⁵, Weirong Yao⁶, Wenqiu Liu⁴, Zhaosheng Lin⁴

Affiliations

¹ Testing Innovation Research Center, Centre Testing International Group Co Ltd, Shenzhen 518000, China; Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
² Testing Innovation Research Center, Centre Testing International Group Co Ltd, Shenzhen 518000, China; Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China.
³ Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China. Electronic address: lqzhao@szu.edu.cn.
⁴ Testing Innovation Research Center, Centre Testing International Group Co Ltd, Shenzhen 518000, China.
⁵ School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China. Electronic address: xieyunfei@jiangnan.edu.cn.
⁶ School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China.

PMID: 33878584
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.129741

Abstract

In food safety assessment, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a novel detection method with the advantages of being fast, easy, and of high sensitivity. However, many SERS substrate synthesis methods are complex, and there are only a few studies on the simultaneous detection of multiple substances. In this study, a new, simple, low-cost SERS substrate was synthesised for the first time to simultaneously detect illegal food additives rhodamine B and basic orange II in chilli products. A lightweight, porous, and low-cost material of melamine foam (MF) was employed as the SERS synthesis template. The substrate's SERS effect on, and sensitivity to, rhodamine B and basic orange II were demonstrated. The molecular vibration and SERS enhancement mechanisms of the two target molecules were analysed by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The results reveal that this fabricated substrate has great application potential for the supervision and testing industry.

Keywords: Au nanorods; Basic orange II; Rhodamine B; Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.