Metamaterial graphene sensors for the detection of two food additives.

Abstract

Food safety is an important consideration for the food industry and for daily life, and food additives are essential in the modern food industry. Graphene-based metamaterial sensors are of great value and have potential applications in the detection of food additives, due to their ultra-sensitivity. This paper proposes a metasurface sensor consisting of graphene and dual elliptical ring resonators (Gr-DERRs) sensor for the detection of two common food additives. The limit of detection (LOD) for Sudan I solution is 581.43 fg/ml and, for taurine, 52.86 fg/ml. This ultra-sensitive detection is achieved by exploiting the unique electromagnetic properties of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) resonance, together with the Fermi energy level of graphene moving to the Dirac point, resulting in a dramatic change in the dielectric environment. The Gr-DERRs sensor has brings significant improvement in the detection of food additives with detection limits reduced to the femtogram level.