Prof. Rajapandiyan Panneerselvam, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, along with PhD Scholar Ms J Arunima, report an innovative approach for rapid, on-site detection of Fipronil in food and water samples in their recent publication titled “Development of Wearable MXene/Ag Nanopopcorn-Decorated Finger Caps for Rapid On-Site SERS Detection of Fipronil in Food and Water Samples” in Q1 journal ACS Applied Nano Materials with an Impact Factor of 5.5.
In this study, the authors developed a novel wearable adhesive SERS finger cap by functionalising adhesive aluminum tape (AT) with Mo₂C nanoparticles, followed by the deposition of Ag nanopopcorn structures (AgNPCs) to form AgNPCs/Mo₂C@AT. This hybrid platform offers several key advantages: the flexible and adhesive nature of AT enables a simple “paste, press, and peel” protocol for efficient sample extraction; the synergistic combination of Mo₂C nanoparticles and AgNPCs enhances both electromagnetic and chemical signal amplification; and the wearable finger cap design significantly improves operational convenience and user-friendliness for real-time applications.
Brief Abstract:
Pesticide residues in vegetables pose serious human health risks, thereby underscoring the need for developing rapid, cost-effective, sensitive, and non-destructive analysis methods for on-site pesticide detection. Here, we report a wearable adhesive SERS-active finger cap created by decorating silver nanopopcorns (AgNPCs) and molybdenum carbide (Mo2C) nanoparticles on the flexible aluminum tape (AT) to constitute the hybrid AgNPCs/Mo2C@AT SERS platform for reliable detection of the toxic pesticide fipronil (FP). The synergistic electromagnetic and chemical enhancements of the AgNPCs/Mo2C composite greatly amplify SERS signals, while strong adhesion and flexibility ensure robust nanoparticle retention and efficient analyte collection from irregular surfaces, The AgNPCs/Mo2C@AT SERS finger cap demonstrates a broad detection range from 10⁻10 to 10⁻4 M with an enhancement factor of 1.90 × 109 and an ultra-low limit of detection of 1.16 × 10⁻10 M, which is far below the regulatory thresholds set by the European Union and China. Besides, it exhibits superior signal uniformity (RSD = 8.81%), good reproducibility (RSD =8 .01%), and excellent storage stability, which can retain 70% of its original SERS activity after 14 days. Its flexibility allows for its intimate contact with curved surfaces to enable efficient FP residue detection on tomatoes and chilies using a simple “paste, press, and peel” method. Overall, the proposed wearable SERS finger cap represents a low-cost, user-friendly, and highly sensitive SERS platform for real-time, on-site pesticide detection with broad applications in food safety and environmental monitoring.
Practical implementation of research :
The practical applicability of the proposed AgNPCs/Mo2C@AT SERS finger caps are validated by the successful detection of pesticide fipronil from vegetables.
Collaborations:
Professor Tzyy-Jiann Wang, National Taipei University of Technology-Taiwan
Dr S Manivannan, Banaras Hindu University
Future research plans:
Development of novel SERS substrate for detecting toxic pollutants in food.
