Cost-Effective Tween 80-Capped Copper Nanoparticles for Ultrasensitive Colorimetric Detection of Thiram Pesticide in Environmental Water Samples

Abstract

Thiram plays a critical role in protecting fruits and vegetables from damage by various crop diseases, but its residues significantly affect the environment, such as soil and water pollution, and becoming a serious threat to human health. Herein, Tween 80-capped copper nanoparticles (Tween 80-CuNPs) were developed as a convenient and low-cost colorimetric probe for selective detection of thiram pesticide. In the presence of thiram, the color of Tween 80-capped CuNPs changed from dark brown to olive green and colorless at high thiram concentrations. The Tween 80-capped CuNPs-based colorimetric probe exhibited good selectivity and high sensitivity (LOD about 0.17 μM) with a high linearity level in the calibration range of 0.5–25 μM of thiram concentrations. The thiram limit of detection (LOD) of proposed sensor is lower than the maximum residue limit (MRL) regulated by the governments of EU and Vietnam. Moreover, the proposed sensor was successfully applied to determine thiram in tap water with percentage recovery of 98-107% and high repeatability ( $\text{RSD}=1.9\%$ ). The obtained results indicated that Tween 80-capped CuNPs would become a cost-effective sensing platform for ultrahigh-sensitive thiram determination in the environmental water samples.