SERS detection of ceftriaxone and sulfadimethoxine using copper nanoparticles temporally protected by porous calcium carbonate

The authors describe a new composite based on SERS-active copper nanoparticles (CuNPs; 10 ± 2 nm) incorporated into calcium carbonate microspheres (CaCO₃-CuNPs; 3.4 ± 0.3 μm). The CaCO₃ coating acts as a temporal protector of CuNPs against oxidation. Incorporated CuNPs have significantly improved stability during storage and a month-long shelf lifetime. The composite was used for SERS detection of rhodamine 6G and two antibacterial drugs (ceftriaxone and sulfadimethoxine). Two analytical formats, one with and one without solid phase extraction, are introduced to demonstrate the flexibility of the method. Both formats imply the dissolution of CaCO₃ matrix before SERS analysis to release CuNP used as SERS substrate. The study of the influence of pH value and acid nature on the SERS signal demonstrated that HCl is the most efficient candidate to release the CuNPs. Sensitivity (expressed as LOD) is shown to be improved by more than one order when solid phase extraction is used. The average SERS enhancement factor is 10^7 which makes the material efficiency comparable to the one of silver nanoparticles. The LOD (<5 μM), precision (RSDs between 20 and 24% at LOD levels), and trueness (apparent recoveries 84-113%) for the two antibiotics (ceftriaxone and sulfadimethoxine) make the method quite useful for quantitative analysis and therapeutic drug monitoring at physiologically relevant concentrations. Graphical abstract A composite with temporally stable copper nanoparticles was synthesized, studied, and used for SERS detection of two antibacterial drugs. The analytical efficiency of the composite was found appropriate for quantitative analysis due to Raman enhancement comparable with silver nanostructures.