Ultra-Sensitive, Rapid and On-Site Sensing Harmful Ingredients Used in Aquaculture with Magnetic Fluid SERS

The integration of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy with magnetic fluid provides significant utility in point-of-care (POC) testing applications. Bifunctional magnetic-plasmonic composites have been widely employed as SERS substrates. In this study, a simple and cost-effective approach was developed to synthesize magnetic-plasmonic SERS substrates by decorating silver nanoparticles onto magnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (AgMNPs), which function both as SERS-active substrates and magnetic fluid particles. The strong magnetic responsivity from AgMNPs can isolate, concentrate, and detect target analytes from the irregular surface of fish skin rapidly. We fabricate a microfluid chip with three sample reservoirs that confine AgMNPs into ever smaller volumes under an applied magnetic field, which enhances the SERS signal and improves the detection limit by two orders of magnitude. The magnetic fluid POC sensor successfully detected malachite green from fish with excellent selectivity and high sensitivity down to the picomolar level. This work achieves a label-free, non-destructive optical sensing approach with promising potential for the detection of various harmful ingredients in food or the environment.