A surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (SEIRA) multivariate approach for atrazine detection

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Atrazine (ATZ) is a widely used herbicide with environmental concerns.
• Accurate and sensitive detection methods for ATZ are crucial for monitoring.
• Conventional methods may lack the sensitivity required for trace-level detection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a green, fast, and effective multivariate method for ATZ determination.
• To investigate the surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) approach for enhanced ATZ detection sensitivity.
• To assess the compatibility of the SEIRA method with reference techniques.

Main Methods:

• Development of a multivariate method using attenuated total reflectance infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy.
• Synthesis of a silver selenide quantum dot substrate (Ag2Se/MPA) for SEIRA.
• Application of univariate and multivariate calibrations for spectral data analysis.
• Calculation of enhancement factors (EF) and multivariate enhancement factors (MEF).

Main Results:

• The ATR-IR method provided limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) for ATZ between 1.9-4.6 µg/mL and 5.6-14 µg/mL, respectively.
• The SEIRA approach enhanced the ATZ signal by up to 86-fold.
• SEIRA enabled the detection of ATZ at concentrations as low as 0.001 µg/mL.

Conclusions:

• The developed multivariate ATR-IR method is efficient for ATZ determination.
• The SEIRA strategy significantly improves sensitivity for low-concentration ATZ detection.
• This approach offers a promising tool for environmental monitoring of atrazine.