Determination of thiabendazole in orange juice using an MISPE-SERS chemosensor

Thiabendazole, a systemic fungicide used to treat vegetables and fruits during postharvest process, persists as detrimental residue to consumers. We combine a molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) with surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to form a novel MISPE-SERS chemosensor and determined thiabendazole in orange juice. Kinetic and static adsorption tests validated the efficient and selective adsorption of thiabendazole using synthesized MIPs via precipitation polymerization. Synthesized MIPs were packed into solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridge to serve as tailor-made sorbents for the separation of thiabendazole in orange juice. Silver colloids synthesized by reduction of AgNO3 by trisodium citrate were used as SERS-active substrate to quantify the eluted thiabendazole from MISPE. The overall process including sample preparation and detection took 23min and the limit of detection of this chemosensor was 4ppm for thiabendazole in orange juice. This chemosensor can be used for rapid and sensitive detection of thiabendazole in agri-foods.