Photochemical decoration of gold nanoparticles on MoS2 nanoflowers grafted onto the flexible carbon cloth as a recyclable SERS sensor for the detection of antibiotic residues on curved surfaces

The surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)-based flexible substrate has recently been demonstrated to be effective in detecting molecules on curved surfaces, however a suitable method of fabricating the flexible SERS substrate remains a hurdle. In this paper, we fabricated a flexible SERS substrate by anchoring the plasmonic gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) onto the hydrothermally grown flower-like molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) grafted on carbon cloth (CC) via a facile photoreduction route. Benefitting from the abundant hotspots generation of the Au-NPs and photo-induced charge-transfer ability of MoS2, the constructed Au-NPs/MoS2/CC substrate exhibit a superior SERS sensing ability, excellent SERS enhancement factor, high flexibility and mechanical stability towards the nitrofurantoin (NFT) with an ultra-low detection limit of 10−11 M, respectively. As a trial for practical applications, the flexible substrate was used to detect NFT (10−4 M) in the curved surfaces of meat samples via swab technique. The ability of the flexible Au-NPs/MoS2/CC substrate to sustain the robust Raman signals of NFT even after recycling up to 4 cycles validated its reusability. The proposed flexible SERS substrate with reusable capability indicates its great potential in practical applications for the detection of target molecules on the curved surfaces.