Facile ultrasonication-assisted synthesis of Purpald-functionalized silver nanoparticles for the rapid spectrophotometric detection of acetamiprid pesticide in food and environmental samples

Abstract

In this work, we report a highly sensitive and selective colorimetric assay using purpald functionalized silver nanoparticles (P-AgNPs) as a probe for the detection of acetamiprid pesticide in food and environmental samples using Ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectrophotometric analysis. Several methods, including Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, Transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Dynamic light scattering, were used to characterize the synthesized P-AgNPs. As prepared P-AgNPs were spherical in shape and the average particle size was determined to be 17.69 ± 0.3 nm based on TEM analysis. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band for P-AgNPs was observed at 445 nm (Visible spectral region). Interestingly, increased acetamiprid pesticide concentration in the sample solution, shows decreased SPR band absorbance due to aggregation of P-AgNPs by electrostatic repulsion. Results showed an excellent linearity range 2.49 to 82.06 µM and the lowest detection limit was 36 nM, the present method is applied to detect acetamiprid pesticide in a variety of environmental and food samples, including soil samples, tomato, carrot, bean, cabbage and cucumber samples, as well as tap and drinking water. Results indicate good accuracy and precision. Therefore, the presented method is proven to be a simple, fast, low-cost and efficient method for analysis of pesticides in food and environmental samples.