A core-molecule-shell Au@PATP@Ag nanorod for nicotine detection based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering technology

Nicotine is an addictive substance often found in tobacco and cigarette smoke and excessive exposure to it can cause various diseases. Herein, core-molecule-shell gold/4-aminothiophenol/silver nanorods (Au@PATP@Ag NRs) were prepared for quantitative detection of nicotine by using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technology. The obtained Au@PATP@Ag NRs showed an outstanding SERS effect due to the plasticity of their morphology and the bimetallic synergistic effect between the excellent stability of Au and the highly enhanced effect of Ag. The Au@PATP@Ag NRs substrate exhibited an extremely high enhancement factor (EF) of 2.17 × 10⁷. In addition, in-situ synthesized PATP was used as an internal standard to correct signal fluctuation and improve the reliability of quantitative nicotine detection. A wide linear dynamic range from 10^-8 to 10^-3 M was obtained and an ultra-low limit of detection (LOD) was about 3.12 × 10^-9 M, which was superior to most of previously reported methods. This work has also been used for determining nicotine content in cigarettes and simulated environmental tobacco smoke by using a portable device. These results indicated that the developed SERS method had many potential applications in the quantitative determination of nicotine in real tobacco samples.