Recognition of carbendazim fungicide in environmental samples by using 4-aminobenzenethiol functionalized silver nanoparticles as a colorimetric sensor

Abstract

We have developed a colorimetric method for the sensitive and selective detection of carbendazim fungicide in water and food samples using 4-aminobenzenethiol functionalized silver nanoparticles (ABT-Ag NPs) as a colorimetric sensor. The synthesized ABT-Ag NPs were characterized by UV–visible spectroscopy, FT-IR, dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopic (TEM) techniques. The ABT-Ag NPs acted as a probe for binding of carbendazim through strong ion-pair and π–π interactions that causes to form a large conjugate network, resulting a color change from yellow to orange, which can be easily seen by naked eye. The characteristic surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak of ABT-Ag NPs at 397nm is red-shifted to 510nm, which confirms that the carbendazim induces the aggregation of ABT-Ag NPs. Under optimum conditions, the absorbance ratio at A510/A397 is related linearly to the concentration of carbendazim in the range of 10–100μM, with a detection limit of 1.04μM. This colorimetric method has been successfully utilized to detect carbendazim in environmental water and food samples with the recoveries ranges from 97% to 100%. The proposed colorimetric assay exhibits good reproducibility and accuracy, providing a simple and rapid method for the analysis of carbendazim in environmental water and food samples.