A simple and sensitive surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopic discriminative detection of organophosphorous nerve...

Organophosphorous nerve agents (NAs) pose a great threat to nations and people because of their acute and extreme toxicities. The rapid detection of NAs has attracted growing interest in the first emergency response field. In this work, we demonstrate a simple and sensitive surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopic (SERS) method for NAs detection, and G- and V-agents discrimination. The results show that VX (V-agents) can be directly detected at a 20 ng mL^-1 level with pinhole shell-isolated gold nanoparticles (pinSHINs) as the substrate. Moreover, combined with a specific and prompt alkaline keto-oxime transformation approach in a full aqueous solution, G-agents can be measured as low as 10 ng mL^-1 with excellent discrimination from V-agents and other common organophosphorous pesticides within several minutes. The achieved discriminative detection of G-agents and VX could be significant not only for reducing the false positive and negative signals but also for providing an appropriate recommendation on the effective medical rescue. A decontamination outcome occurred alongside, any highly toxic G-agents were converted to a less toxic phosphate, and the generated cyanide was fully and firmly adsorbed onto the surface of pinSHINs substrate, which may be further used for on-site detection of extremely toxic NA prototypes. Graphical abstract ᅟ.