Fabrication of silver nanoparticles modified POSS polymer composite for SERS analysis of trace heterocyclic aromatic amines in roast meat samples

Abstract

Poor stability of noble nanoparticles and various matrix interferences limit the application of surface-enhanced Raman scattering(SERS) analysis in practical samples. To address these issues, a novel SERS substrate was fabricated by using silver nanoparticles to modify polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane(POSS) polymer. AgNPs can be immobilized on POSS polymer through Ag-N interaction by in-situ reduction method. The AgNPs/POSS-P substrate exhibited excellent SERS activity with good stability. The possible selective mechanism of AgNPs/POSS-P for heterocyclic aromatic amine (HAA) was investigated by density functional theory calculation. Subsequently, the AgNPs/POSS-P substrate was used for SERS analysis of two trace HAAs including 2-amino-1,6-dimethylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine(DMIP) and 2-amino-3,4-dimethyl-3himidazo[4,5-f]quinoline(MeIQ) in range from 1.0 to 200.0 μg/L and 10.0–500.0 μg/L. The limits of detections were 0.75 μg/L and 4.54 μg/L, respectively. In addition, AgNPs/POSS-P substrate was used for analysis of DMIP and MeIQ in roast meat samples. The recoveries were 88.1%− 109.5% for DMIP and 81.9%− 112.5% for MeIQ with the relative standard deviations of 2.7%− 9.5% and 3.2%− 9.1%, respectively. All these results demonstrated the promising application of the fabricated AgNPs/POSS-P composite in SERS analysis of food samples.