Innovative quantum dots-based SERS for ultrasensitive reporting of contaminants in food: Fundamental concepts and...

Food contamination poses serious health risks, compelling the discovery of new methods to guarantee regulatory compliance and build consumer conviction. Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) has come into sight as a sophisticated approach for the ultrasensitive discovery of toxins in food and water, proposing non-destructive, quick, and precise analysis. Instantaneously, quantum dots (QDs) are astonishing nanomaterials, characterized by distinctive attributes such as quantum confinement and optical photostability. This article extends a decisive outline of SERS technology, pointing out its amalgamation with QDs and discussing numerous augmentation approaches i.e., chemical enhancement, electromagnetic enhancement, Van Hove singularities, the Brus equation, Förster resonance energy transfer, band gap energy, and quantum yield. The amalgamation of SERS with QDs commands an important promise in international food security and conservational sustainability. Nevertheless, QDs provide several compensations, they also aspect a few concerns, counting probable toxicity, stability problems, and predisposition to interference. To tackle these items, further research is required to synthesize safer, more stable QD materials and to refine protocols for practical real-world applications. While some reviews on SERS have been published recently, to our knowledge, the current review is the first one dedicated to QDs-assisted SERS in food safety.