Nanotechnology in food and water security: on-site detection of agricultural pollutants through surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Abstract

Agricultural pollutants are harmful components threatening human health, wildlife, the environment, and the ecosystem. To avoid their exposure, developing prevention and detection systems with high sensitivity and selectivity is required. Most conventional methods, including molecular and chromatographic techniques, cannot be adopted for outdoor on-site detection even though they can provide sensitive and selective detection. Thus, detection platforms that can provide on-site detection via miniaturized and high throughput systems should be developed. As an alternative method, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) provides unique information about the substances in the presence of plasmonic nanostructures, and it can be portable with the use of portable detection systems and spectrometers. In this study, on-site detection of agricultural pollutants through SERS is reviewed. Three different types of agricultural pollutants were pointed out. On-site detection of biological pollutants, including bacteria and viruses, is reviewed as the first type of pollutant. As a second type, the detection of pesticides, antibiotics, and additives are focused on as chemical pollutants. The third group includes the detection of microplastics and also nanoparticles from the environment.

Colloidal nanomaterials for water quality improvement and monitoring

“…However, it was mainly during the last decades that SERS has been regarded as an essential method for water quality monitoring, offering new possibilities for practical implementation and, in certain cases, lowering analytical detection limits in established analytical protocols ( Pinheiro et al, 2018 ; Tang et al, 2018 ; Bodelón and Pastoriza-Santos, 2020 ; Ong et al, 2020 ). The increasing interest in the application of SERS to water quality monitoring is inseparable from last developments in terms of instrumentation (e.g., detection sensitivity and portability) and also on the nanofabrication methods of analytical substrates, in which surface chemistry plays a determinant role ( Li et al, 2014 ; Yılmaz et al, 2022 ). In fact, our interest in this research topic has been mainly driven by exploring chemical routes to produce a variety of nanostructured materials with specific features for SERS analysis ( Fateixa et al, 2011 ; Fateixa et al, 2013 ; Fateixa et al, 2015 ; Fateixa et al, 2016 ; Pinheiro et al, 2019b ).…”

Rapid Detection of Available Nitrogen in Soil by Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

“…Nonetheless, it is very weak in nature because only a very small fraction of the incident photons is inelastically scattered. Thus, the detection of low-abundant molecules in complex media is infeasible [ 38 ]. It is necessary to introduce SERS to enhance Raman signals of matters adsorbed on rough noble metal surfaces or nanoparticles by many orders of magnitude [ 39 ].…”

Recent advances of Raman spectroscopy for the analysis of bacteria

“…It is a powerful analytical technique and has been widely used in the detection of chemical and biological components 11–13 . Raman spectroscopy is a form of vibrational spectroscopy which can be used to build an ultrasensitive platform when coupled with nanomaterials for molecular recognition ability and even single molecule detection 14 . Furthermore, Raman spectroscopy is a non‐destructive method so samples will be available for additional investigations.…”

“… 11 , 12 , 13 Raman spectroscopy is a form of vibrational spectroscopy which can be used to build an ultrasensitive platform when coupled with nanomaterials for molecular recognition ability and even single molecule detection. 14 Furthermore, Raman spectroscopy is a non‐destructive method so samples will be available for additional investigations. The spectral features that correspond to a wide range of important functional groups can provide essential information about the biochemical constituents of bacterial cells.…”