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Assembling PVP-Au NPs as portable chip for sensitive detection of cyanide with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

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Abstract

Cyanide (C≡N) can lead to blood, cardiovascular system, and nervous system disorders owing to the acute and chronic toxicity; thus, aiming at the group or individual poisoning incidents, it is necessary to develop the sensitive and credible method for rapid on-site detection of poisons cyanide. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) with the advantages of providing fingerprint information of target molecules and single-molecules sensitivity has been widely used in on-site analysis; however, the SERS measurements always suffer from the problem of the stability of substrates. Here, the polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-stabilized Au NPs (PVP-Au NPs) have been assembled through the simple, convenient evaporation-induced strategy with the large-scale hotspots substrates. The presence of PVP can not only facilitate the assembly of Au NPs but also prevent the corrosion of CN− towards the Au NPs with the formation of [Au (CN)2]−1, providing high stable and reproducible SERS signals. Moreover, the PVP-Au NPs have been assembled on the Si wafer to fabricate the portable SERS chip for rapid on-site detection of CN− with an RSD of 5.8% and limitation of 100 ppb. Furthermore, by coupling a portable Raman spectrometer, the SERS spectra of CN− spiked into different specimens to simulate the poison samples have been collected and analyzed on SERS chips with the recovery of 89–103% and RSD not higher than 11.3%. Consequently, the fabricated SERS chip with assembled PVP-Au NPs can provide sensitive and credible detection for CN− in different specimens, and then would satisfy the rapid on-site evaluation of CN− in poisoning incidents with the portable Raman spectrometer.

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Funding

The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21365004), Nature Science Research Project of Anhui province (No. 1908085QB65), The Key Research and Development Project of Guangxi (AB18126048), Guangxi Science and Technology Major Project (Gui Ke AA18118013-10), Guangxi University for Nationalities Master Student Innovation Project (gxun-chxps201822).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangxi University for Nationalities; Guangxi Key Laboratory of Chemistry and Engineering of Forest Products; Key Laboratory of Guangxi Colleges and Universities for food safety and pharmaceutical analytical chemistry, Nanning, 530008, Guangxi, China

    Penghui Li, Xuecai Tan & Heyou Han

  2. Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Medical Physics and Technology, Center of Medical Physics and Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, Anhui, China

    Pan Li & Liangbao Yang

  3. Department of Pharmacy, Hefei Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, Anhui, China

    Junping Wang & Liangbao Yang

  4. Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Public Security, PRC, Beijing, 100038, China

    Yunfeng Zhang

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  1. Penghui Li
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  2. Pan Li
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Correspondence to Pan Li, Xuecai Tan or Yunfeng Zhang.

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Li, P., Li, P., Tan, X. et al. Assembling PVP-Au NPs as portable chip for sensitive detection of cyanide with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Anal Bioanal Chem 412, 2863–2871 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-020-02517-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-020-02517-8

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