Construction of a functional flexible SERS imprinted sensor for detection of MC-LR in aqueous systems

This work presents a novel flexible imprinted membrane-made surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for selective detection of microcystins-LR (MC-LR) in water. Silver nanocubes decorated with titanium dioxide (Ag NCs@TiO 2 ) nanoparticles (NPs) are dispersed on a flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane as the SERS substrate. The PDMS exhibits excellent optical properties, ensuring the detection accuracy. A photo-initiated polymerization process is employed to maintain the molecular integrity of MC-LR while improving the resistance of the SERS substrates to air-induced oxidation. By optimizing the reaction condition, optimal SERS imprinted membrane is applied to selective detection of practical samples. The characterization results indicate that the Ag NCs@TiO 2 molecular imprinted membranes (ATP-MIMs) present accurate detection property to the MC-LR molecules from complex solution. Rapid detection within around 1 min is achieved by the as-prepared flexible molecularly imprinted SERS sensor. The limit of detection of MC-LR is 0.0313 μg·L −1 and the ATP-MIMs exhibit a high stability of more than 86.6 % after 28 days. It clearly exhibits from results that ATP-MIMs hold significant potential applications to trace MC-LR detection and provide a novel approach to the water quality monitoring.