NaOH-assisted SERS response of salbutamol in fortified pork extracts using an AgNPs–CNP formulation

AgNPs–CNP enabled NaOH-assisted SERS detection of salbutamol in pork. • AgNPs–CNP-10 gave the strongest response among the tested formulations. • Bands at 1603 and 1360 cm −1 supported preliminary dual-band calibration. • Response-based LOD and LOQ were 0.119 and 0.396 μg/g, respectively. • SAL/RAC mixtures showed composition-dependent spectral overlap. Salbutamol (SAL), a representative β-adrenergic agonist, poses potential risks to food safety when illegally present in animal-derived foods. In this study, silver nanoparticles prepared in the presence of carbon nanopowder (AgNPs–CNP) were examined for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) measurement of SAL-containing extracts prepared from fortified pork. Among the tested preparations, AgNPs–CNP-10 produced the strongest SAL response, and a 0.9 mol/L NaOH stock solution produced the strongest response among the tested aggregation conditions. Across the recorded fortification series, the bands at 1603 and 1360 cm −1 showed level-dependent spectral changes. All droplets at a given recorded level originated from the same fortified and extracted pork portion, and the held-out droplets therefore described only droplet-level variation within the same extract series. Moreover, because the aliquot volume used in the original fortification step could not be reconstructed from the surviving records, the recorded level labels and derived regression statistics are not presented as traceable sample concentrations or method-validation parameters. An exploratory SAL/RAC coexistence experiment showed composition-dependent changes in adjacent spectral regions and progressively greater band overlap as the SAL:RAC ratio decreased. This work therefore provides a matrix-oriented exploratory description of the AgNPs–CNP/NaOH response. Verified fortification, independently prepared samples, recovery and trueness assessment, reference-method confirmation, broader selectivity testing, spatial and batch reproducibility, day-to-day evaluation, and storage-stability studies are required before quantitative or practical screening performance can be assessed. Download: Download high-res image (387KB) Download: Download full-size image