Designing of ordered two-dimensional gold nanoparticles film for cocaine detection in human urine using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Abstract A novel and rapid method to detect cocaine in human urine has been developed by using self-assembly ordered two dimensional (2D) gold nanoparticles (GNPs) film as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates. In order to obtain high sensitivity, uniformity, and reproducibility of SERS platform, quasi-spherical, uniform GNPs were firstly synthesis using seed growth method, in which the GNPs have been functionalized with CTAB to form orderly close-packed GNPs film as SERS substrate. Importantly, the high-performance GNPs on solid substrates can produce a high yield of sub-10-nm gaps which can generate gigantic signals enhancement for analytes adsorbed GNPs surface. In view of the complex component of human urine, we develop a rapid and efficient pretreatment strategy for separation and purification of cocaine by using hexane extraction in real human urine samples within 3 min. With the advantages of better extraction rates (>75%) examined by ultraperformance liquid chromatography (UPLC) and the excellent signal-to-noise ratio detected by SERS, our pretreatment procedure can efficiently lower the interference of complex biological components in urine. To reach on-spot analyzer, a handheld Raman spectrometer was used for feasible SERS detection of cocaine in real human urine. The favorable results demonstrated our pretreatment strategy combined with SERS platform will be a great prospective method toward rapid, reliable, and on-spot cocaine detection for public safety.