Abstract
Florfenicol has been widely used in livestock and aquaculture to treat bacterial infections. Due to the abuse of antibiotics, florfenicol has been released into the environment. Thus, there is a need for the rapid determination of trace levels of florfenicol in the environment. To improve the sensitivity for florfenicol, solid phase extraction (SPE) was employed to enrich florfenicol from multi-residue antibiotic mixtures followed by in situ determination by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Activated carbon, C18, graphene oxide (GO), and sand were applied to concentrate florfenicol in water. Silver nanoparticles (AgNP)-coated silicon (AgNPs@Si) substrate was employed to determine florfenicol enriched on the adsorbent. The results showed that the detection limit of florfenicol in water was 2.8 × 10−9 mol/L following the adsorption and enrichment of activated carbon. Besides, activated carbon was performed to extract florfenicol from the multi-residue antibiotic mixtures, including enrofloxacin, norfloxacin, and florfenicol. The results showed that activated carbon combined with SERS specifically determined florfenicol in complex antibiotic mixtures with a detection limit of 2.8 × 10−9 mol/L. Moreover, to better understand the adsorption mechanisms, the mechanism of the interaction of florfenicol with activated carbon was investigated.