Nano Detection of Trace Atrazine in Drinking Water by Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy with Silver Nanoparticles

Atrazine is a chlorinated triazine herbicide, widely used on several agriculturally important crops such as corn, sorghum, sugar cane, wheat. Atrazine in drinking water has shown altering human reproductive system. There are previous reports to show data connecting atrazine to cancer formation, although a direct connection has so far been made only with the formation of ovarian tumours, uterine cancers, and leukaemia in animal test subjects. The presence of atrazine in drinking water has been monitored under the Safe Drinking Water Act; and EPA rules are required to monitor its concentrations using IR, GC, and HPLC. However, these methods can be time-consuming and require significant resources and facilities. The water quality control has become prioritized in many countries and communities. Methods for quick, cheap, and easy detection of pollutants in water have gained importance and have significant impacts to the public health. Thus, Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) has gained much attention in recent research, as it is resulted from plasmonic effect through the interaction of metal nanoparticles with substances; it is rapid, relatively easy to interpret, and can detect trace amounts of several pollutants,. In our experiments, we explored to the usage of silver nanoparticles to achieve SERS nano detection objective for trace atrazine analysis in drinking water. Our results demonstrated a minimum detected concentration of 5x10^-15 M of atrazine in our water samples, indicating this highly sensitive method is sufficient to allow the detection to be used in drinking water quality monitoring atrazine, even under the strictest international regulations.This nano method will make significant contribution to the public health near future.