Competition-resistant Au@Ag core-shell SERS substrates combined with a multilayer perceptron for simultaneous...

This study developed a novel SERS detection platform based on seed-mediated synthesis of core-shell structured Au@Ag NPs. Benefiting from the atomic synergistic effects between the gold core and silver shell, the substrate demonstrated exceptional stability, enabling simultaneous dual-target detection of Thiram and Paraquat. Experimental results revealed linear response ranges of 1.0 × 10^-6-1.0 × 10^-4 M (LOD: 6.89 × 10^-8 M) at 1380 cm^-1 for Thiram, and 1.0 × 10^-5-1.0 × 10^-3 M (LOD: 9.75 × 10^-6 M) at 840 cm^-1 for Paraquat. Spiked recovery rates in apple samples reached 95.6%-102% for Thiram and 95%-98.4% for Paraquat. Quantitative analysis of mixed systems using an MLP model achieved 91% accuracy, 89% recall, 89% F1-score, and 90% precision. This method provides a highly sensitive and reliable technical solution for simultaneous detection of multiple pesticide residues in complex food matrices, demonstrating significant potential for rapid food safety monitoring applications.