Au-Decorated Dragonfly Wing Bioscaffold Arrays as Flexible Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) Substrate for Simultaneous Determination of Pesticide Residues

Rapid sampling and multicomponent analysis are vital in pesticide residue detection. In this work, we proposed a SERS platform to detect three kinds of pesticides on apple peels simultaneously by a straightforward “press and peel off” method. The flexible Au/dragonfly wing (Au/DW) substrate was obtained from sputtering Au nanoislands on DW bioscaffold arrays by a simple direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering system. The high-performance substrate exhibited a low limit of detection (LOD) to 4-aminothiophenol (4-ATP) (10(−9) M), outstanding reproducibility (less than 12.15%), good stability and suitability in multifold pesticide residues detection. Considering its excellent sample collection efficiency, the Au/DW substrate was employed to solve critical pesticide residue problems for detection of acephate (APT), cypermethrin (CPT), tsumacide (MTMC) and their multiple components on apple peels. The results show that the LOD was 10(−3) ng/cm(2) for APT obtained on the apple surface with a calculation equation of y = 0.26x + 6.68 and a determination coefficient (R(2)) of 0.970. Additionally, the LOD values for CPT and MTMC were 10(−3) ng/cm(2) and 10(−4) ng/cm(2), respectively. The finding in this work may provide a promising biomimetic SERS platform for on-spot detection of other organic pollutants in the food industry and inenvironmental protection.