SERS paper sensor based on three-dimensional ZnO@Ag nanoflowers assembling on polyester fiber membrane for rapid detection of florfenicol residues in chicken

Antibiotic residues are a huge threat to food safety and ecological environment and florfenicol (FF) is one of the most wide-spread antibiotics entering the food chain. Hence, rapid and sensitive methods for the detection of FF in food are highly required. In this study, we present a facile method for the fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) ZnO@Ag nanoflowers (ZnO@Ag NFs) assembling on polyester fiber membrane (PFM), which can be used as an economic surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) paper sensor for sensitive determination of FF traces. 3D ZnO@Ag NFs that decorated on PFM provides sufficient "hot spots" and high chemical stability for the analytical platform. Without using any expensive materials and complicated methods, this flexible SERS substrate exhibits superior sensitivity, excellent uniformity, and well-reproducibility. The SERS response of the sensor toward FF shows excellent correlation during the range of 1 x 10-9 M to 1 x 10-3 M with the limit of detection (LOD) as low as 2.23 x 10- 10 M. The recovery rate ranges from 97% to 101%, indicating that the SERS detection method provides a powerful tool for detecting toxic and harmful substances in food.