Simultaneous determination of benzimidazole fungicides in food using signal optimized label-free HAu/Ag NS-SERS sensor.

Extensively employed pesticide in agriculture causes residue in food products that would threaten public health safety. The surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) signal reliant on double sensing of carbendazim and thiabendazole in a single step is achieved without the aid of any bio-recognition element. A label-free anisotropic bimetallic hollow Au/Ag nanostars (HAu/Ag NS) SERS substrate was synthesized with numerous hot spots for Raman molecule through a galvanic displacement-free deposition. The individual and mixed analyte calibration results were compared based on the identified peak at 1224 (carbendazim) and 778 (thiabendazole) cm and exhibited insignificant differences. The sensor could detect carbendazim and thiabendazole up to 4.28 × 10 and 6.04 × 10 µg·g or µg·mL in both individual and mixture of their extract. The recovery for accuracy and precision analysis was 91.54-98.26 % in rice and water. Finally, validation results were achieved satisfactorily (p > 0.05) with HPLC.