Metal-organic-frameworks-enforced surface enhanced Raman scattering chip for elevating detection sensitivity of carbendazim in seawater

Abuse of carbendazim (CBZ) caused down-regulation of humoral immunity and reproductive toxicity. Conventional detection methods were time-consuming with cumbersome pretreatment or insufficient sensitivity to trace amounts. The Surface- enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) method has been applied to detect CBZ but the routinely used SERS substrates suffer from serious agglomeration in seawater. Herein, [email protected] modified metal-organic framework (MOF, ZIF-8) was prepared and then the composite MOF was immobilized onto ITO glass for avoiding excessive agglomeration of nanoparticles and the optimal SERS substrate was designated as [email protected]5@ZIF-8 (1.5 h) chip, which exhibited high stability and detection sensitivity. The presence of ZIF-8 improved adsorption and accumulation for target molecules, actually dragging CBZ close to the vicinity of [email protected] hot spots. As a real application, [email protected]5@ZIF-8 (1.5 h)-chip based Raman strategy achieved rapid determination of CBZ in seawater and had good linearity in the range of from 1.0 × 10–9 to 1 × 10–5 mol L−1 with a limit of detection of 0.2 μg kg−1 in seawater sample, meeting the requirement of the European Union.