TiO2-SiO2-Ag FIBERS FOR ANTIBIOTICS DETECTION BY SERS

Abstract

Antibiotics are pharmaceutical compounds used to treat and prevent infectious diseases in humans and animals. The agriculture industry uses antibiotics such as oxytetracycline (OTC) to increase production, due to its effectiveness and low cost; therefore, in wastewater generated after treatment, antibiotic residues persist at trace concentrations; which contributes to the development of bacterial resistance. Monitoring of antibiotic residues in the environment is necessary. Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy s a promising technique in detection and identification a low concentrations (ng/L) of antibiotics with no sample preparation. A fibrillar support Titania-Silica doped with silver particles was developed in the SERS technique focused on the detection of OTC. The ceramic fibers TiO2SiO2 obtained presented phases of Rutile, Anatase and Amorphous Silica with diameters of 335±76 nm. The fibers were doped with Ag by electrodeposition, showed Ag nanoparticles with sizes from 30 nm to the formation of dendritic structures with sizes greater than 1 μm, depending on the time and voltage applied during synthesis. The support doped with Ag for 30 s at 19V presented the highest amplification factor (AF) in SERS of 44 for the band at 1278 cm-1.