Background: Ciprofloxacin (CIP) is a highly active third-generation fluoroquinolone antibiotic with a broad range of antibacterial activity, which is produced and consumed for both human and veterinary medicine applications. A large amount of CIP is excreted through urine; therefore, it enters the environment through urban sewages, pharmaceutical industries, livestock activities, and agricultural wastewater, and it is associated with harmful effects on the environment as well as human and animal health. Therefore, rapid and sensitive detection of CIP is of great importance in many fields, especially human health.
Materials and Methods: In order to detect CIP to control diseases caused by it, filter paper substrates coated with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were employed as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) biosensors. First, AgNPs were prepared using the Tollens method, and afterward, they were coated on filter paper substrates by immersion method to fabricate flexible plasmonic active substrates based on filter papers as SERS biosensors for the purpose of identifying the molecular vibrations of CIP. Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM) images, scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) images, and dynamic light scattering (DLS) were used for the characterization of the fabricated AgNPs.
Results: The limit of detection (LOD) of SERS-active plasmonic substrates was obtained to be 10-7 M for the detection of CIP. The mean relative standard deviation (RSD) was calculated to be 4.38% for six repeated measurements. The intensity of Raman modes decreased with the reduction of the concentration of the solution down to 10-7 M so that only some peaks were visible. The enhancement factor (EF) of SERS-active flexible plasmonic substrates was experimentally calculated to be 1.460×107.
Conclusion: The developed SERS-active plasmonic substrates prepared by the proposed method for the detection of CIP showed promising results for SERS-based investigations and can lead to the development of nanosensors. Moreover, SERS-active plasmonic substrates showed remarkable recyclability, reproducibility, and chemical stability. In conclusion, AgNPs can be employed for the development of potential SERS-active substrates for the detection of very low concentrations of CIP.
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General Received: 2022/10/17 | Accepted: 2022/10/29 | Published: 2022/11/1
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