Biomass-derived porous carbon-protected silver nanoflowers construction of long-term stable SERS substrate for ultrasensitive detection of organic pollution

Biomass-derived porous carbon (PC) loaded with precious metals have a synergistic enhancement effect on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). In this paper, PC containing various functional groups and large specific surface area, good stability and certain biocompatibility were prepared using tomato skins and introduced into the preparation of Ag nanoflowers (NFs) SERS substrates. Rhodamine 6G (R6G) was used as the Raman probe molecule to evaluate the sensing performance of Ag NFs@PC. The results showed that the stable dispersion and protective effect of PC on Ag NPs significantly improved the sensitivity and long-term stability of traditional Ag NFs. In practical application, Ag NFs@PC was further used to successfully achieve the quantitative analysis of trace methylene blue (10 ppt) and malachite green (10 ppt) in a lake water system. Therefore, SERS sensor Ag NFs@PC is expected to become a promising candidate sensor for detecting in the field of environment and food monitoring. Graphical abstract