Determination of carbendazim in tea using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is applied to detect the concentration of carbendzim (CBZ) in tea leaves. Au colloid is selected and used for active surfaces, and the extraction conditions are optimized in the experiment. The linearity range for the SERS intensity and the concentration of CBZ is found to be 0.5 to 8 mg kg^-1. The detection limit for CBZ is 0.1 mg kg^-1 and its recovery in tea samples is 72.3%. The detection results for CBZ using this method are compared with those of HPLC, and no obvious difference can be found. In addition, by dripping the condensed Au colloid on the tea leaves, the proposed SERS approach could be used to the in-situ determination of the half life period of CBZ on tea leaves.