A novel AgNPs/MOF substrate-based SERS sensor for high-sensitive on-site detection of wheat gluten

Gluten, known as the major allergen in wheat, has gained increasing concerns in industrialized countries, resulting in an urgent need for accurate, high-sensitive, and on-site detection of wheat gluten in complex food systems. Herein, we proposed a silver nanoparticles (AgNPs)/metal-organic framework (MOF) substrate-based surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensor for the high-sensitive on-site detection of wheat gluten. The detection occurred on the newly in-situ synthesized AgNPs/MOF-modified SERS substrate, providing an enhancement factor (EF) of 1.89 x 105. Benefitting from the signal amplification function of AgNPs/MOF and the superiority of SERS, this sensor represented high sensitivity performance and a wide detection range from 1 x 10-15 mol/L to 2 x 10-6 mol/L with a detection limit of 1.16 x 10-16 mol/L, which allowed monitoring the trace of wheat gluten in complex food system without matrix interference. This reliable sandwich SERS sensor may provide a promising platform for high-sensitive, accurate, and on-site detection of allergens in the field of food safety.(c) 2024 Beijing Academy of Food Sciences. Publishing services by Tsinghua University Press.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).