Rapid detection of 2,2′,4,4′‐tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE‐47) using a portable Au‐colloid SERS sensor

Abstract

In situ rapid detection and identification of polybrominated diphenyl ethers, a group of well-known persistent organic pollutants, present a great challenge. To develop a portable and sensitive surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensor for rapid 2,2′,4,4′-tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-47) detection, we adopted the most commonly used Au nanoparticles, which are effective in the analysis of hydrophobic BDE-47 with a simple optimization in citrate content and sampling technique. Qualitative and quantitative determination of BDE-47 was achieved using a portable Raman spectrometer. The SERS response exhibited a linear dependence on the BDE-47 concentration up to 1000 nM with a detection limit of 75 nM. The density function theory-calculated Raman spectra agreed well with the experimental observations, and the results justified the existence of electromagnetic enhancement and charge transfer mechanism. This in situ SERS platform allows easy and reliable detection of hydrophobic molecules such as BDE-47 in complex matrices.

Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) as Emerging Environmental Pollutants: Advances in Sample Preparation and Detection Techniques

“…These limits are comparable with those obtained by HPLC, GC-MS, or GC-HRMS. A surfaceenhanced Raman scattering-based sensor is another detection system that has been successfully applied for rapid detection of BDE 47 in aqueous media, with detection limits of 0.0364 ng L −1 [137]. The use of sensory techniques is cheaper and a low concentration of contaminants can be detected.…”

Physicochemical analysis of individual atmospheric fine particles based on effective surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

“…S1). This may be explained by the phenomenon that Raman signals can be greatly enhanced when the laser excitation line is moved close to the peak of the localized surface plasmon resonance band (Tan et al, 2013).…”

“…However, continued improvements of the feasibility and practicality of SERS spectroscopy are needed to probe the most important individual particles affecting the climate and human health (Ault and Axson, 2016) (Ofner et al, 2015). Our previous work focused on NP design and fabrication (Sun et al, 2016b) for SERS detection of environmental pollution in solution, such as mercury ions (Sun et al, 2016a), hexavalent chromium (Lv et al, 2017), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Du et al, 2016), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers . 15…”

Recent advances in linear and non‐linear Raman spectroscopy. Part IX

“…report the rapid detection of 2,2′,4,4′‐tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE‐47) using a portable Au‐colloid SERS sensor. This in‐situ SERS platform allows easy and reliable detection of hydrophobic molecules such as BDE‐47 in complex matrixes . You and co‐workers used SERS from Cu 2 O nanoparticles for the direct observation of p,p′‐dimercaptoazobenzene produced from p‐aminothiophenol and p‐nitrothiophenol.…”