Facile fabrication of Au/PEDOT nanowire-based sensing platform for efficient detection of ractopamine in pork

Ractopamine (RAC), illegally used in swine feed to promote lean muscle growth, seriously endangers human health (particularly children's development), necessitating rapid and accurate monitoring of its residues in pork and derived products. In this work, the well-structured gold/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) nanowires (Au/PEDOT NWs) were facilely synthesized via interfacial polymerization, which enabled the uniform loading of Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) on/in cross-linked PEDOT NWs. The component, structure, and morphology of Au/PEDOT NWs were confirmed by series of physical characterization. The Au/PEDOT NWs were used to modify the electrode to fabricate a concise RAC sensing platform, which provides outstanding sensing properties featuring a low detection limit (LOD) of 1.67 μM, wide linear response spanning from 10~200 μM, and a high sensitivity of 1.33 μA μM^-1 cm^-2. Furthermore, by comparison with the detecting results of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), this sensing platform achieved satisfactory recoveries for RAC detection in pork samples. The sensor represents a groundbreaking advancement for food safety by enabling rapid, ultrasensitive, and highly selective detection, providing technical support for on-site food safety detection, and promoting the widespread application of electrochemical sensing technique.