Flower-like hierarchical interface engineering for ultra-sensitive simultaneous detection of trace multi-fungicide residues in beverages.

In this work, combined electromagnetic "hot spots" generated by densely packed AgNPs with the chemical charge transfer enhancement enabled by the semiconducting performance of NiO, a series of flower-like CFP@NiO@AgNPs hierarchical interfaces were fabricated as surface enhancement Raman scattering (SERS) substrates for ultra-sensitive simultaneous detection of multi-fungicide residues. With Rhodamine 6G (R6G) as probe molecule, the CFP@NiO@AgNPs substrate achieved a detection limit 5 × 10-12 M and a high enhancement factor of 1.08 × 108, along with good uniformity and long-term stability. Notably, the hierarchical CFP@NiO@AgNPs demonstrated excellent molecular enrichment effect and realized the multi-component detection of trace thiabendazole (TBZ) and carbendazim (CBZ) residues in beverages. The detection limits achieved for TBZ and CBZ were 5 × 10-9 M and 5.23 × 10-9 M, and was well below regulatory standards respectively. This work provides a portable, sensitive, and dependable SERS sensing platform with significant potential for food safety monitoring and related applications.