A simple approach for ultrasensitive detection of bisphenols by multiplexed surface-enhanced Raman scattering

Bisphenol A (BPA) is well known for its use in plastic manufacture and thermal paper production despite its risk of health toxicity as an endocrine disruptor in humans. Since the publication of new legislation regarding the use of BPA, manufacturers have begun to replace BPA with other phenolic molecules such as bisphenol F (BPF) and bisphenol B (BPB), but there are no guarantees regarding the health safety of these compounds at this time. In this context, a very simple, cheap and fast surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) method was developed for the sensitive detection of these molecules in spiked tap water solutions. Silver nanoparticles were used as SERS substrates. An original strategy was employed to circumvent the issue of the affinity of bisphenols for metallic surfaces and the silver nanoparticles surface was functionalized using pyridine in order to improve again the sensitivity of the detection. Semi-quantitative detections were performed in tap water solutions at a concentrations range from 0.25 to 20 μg L⁻¹ for BPA and BPB and from 5 to 100 μg L⁻¹ for BPF. Moreover, a feasibility study for performing a multiplex-SERS detection of these molecules was also performed before successfully implementing the developed SERS method on real samples.