Selective recognition and determination of malachite green in fish muscles via surface-enhanced Raman scattering coupled with molecularly imprinted polymers

Abstract Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were incorporated with surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for selective recognition and rapid detection of malachite green in fish muscles. Among four functional monomers, methacrylic acid was selected as the suitable one for MIPs synthesis based upon computational simulation. The optimized MIP exhibited a higher adsorption efficiency for malachite green than that of nonimprinted polymers. The 74 nm gold-silver core-shell nanoparticles (Au@Ag NPs) provided stronger SERS signals for malachite green than those of other eleven gold nanoparticles and Au@Ag NPs. The use of selected MIP with Au@Ag NPs enabled to detect as low as 0.5–1 ng/g of malachite green in fish muscles from three different species, which was similar to that of 0.5 μg/L for malachite green standard solutions. The limit of detection was 0.37–0.64 ng/g in different fish muscles. This study provided a rapid, selective, and sensitive approach for SERS analysis of malachite green in aquatic products.