Abstract :
[en] Over the last decade, bisphenol A (BPA) attracted a lot of attention. This molecule, commonly used as a precursor to produce epoxy-resin and plastics, is an endocrine disruptor presenting an estrogenic activity [1]. Despite its health toxicity, BPA is present in a broad variety of consumer goods released from plastic bottles and packaging for example. Since the discovery of its adverse health effect of BPA, the manufacturers tend to use structural analogues of BPA such as BPS, BPF and BPB to produce plastic materials [2]. However, the health safety of these molecules is still not demonstrated. Currently, bisphenols are actively researched and quantified using solid phase extraction and chromatography techniques which are time and solvents consuming. Therefore, it could be very interesting to quantify simultaneously bisphenols using a fast and “green” technique. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) exalts dramatically the Raman scattering of molecules adsorbed or very closed to metallic surface enabling to detect very low amounts of analytes while keeping the structural information obtained from the spectrum which is very interesting to consider multiplexed analyses [3-4]. Moreover, SERS, which is a solvent free and fast acquisition technique, is an attractive tool in “Green Chemistry” [5].
In this context, the development of a multiplexed quantitative approach to detect bisphenol was considered. Silver nanoparticles (AgNps) were selected as SERS substrate and their functionalization was investigated taking into account the weak affinity of phenolic molecules for gold and silver surface [6]. Pyridine was selected as surface modifier and allowed to attract bisphenols around metallic surface thanks to hydrophobic interaction and hydrogen bonds [7]. Afterwards, the SERS samples preparation was optimized playing on the concentrations of pyridine and aggregating agent used to get the nanoparticles closer to each other which promotes the SERS effect. Tap water samples were spiked with different concentration of BPA from 5 ppb to 1000 ppb and analyzed using the optimized SERS sample preparation. A good linearity of the response was observed and a calibration curve with coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.9922 was obtained by plotting the intensity of a principal band of BPA versus the concentration. This last step was repeated using BPB as analyte and a calibration curve with a R2 of 0.9991 was obtained for the same range of concentration using a specific band intensity of BPB. Finally, tap water samples were spiked with different concentrations of BPA and BPB simultaneously and analyzed using SERS and it was possible to detect selectively the two molecules thanks to specific bands and a good linearity of the response was observed for both.
To conclude, promising results were obtained which pave the way to “green” multiplexed quantitative analyses of very low concentrated analytes using SERS.
References:
[1] J.-H. Kang et al., Toxicology 226 (2006) 79-89
[2] C. Liao et al., J. Agric. Food Chem. 61 (2013) 4655-4662
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[5] C. De Bleye et al., Talanta 116 (2013) 899-905.
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[7] B. San Vicente et al., Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 380 (2004) 115-122.