Highly sensitive determination of antimony in food by resonance Rayleigh scattering-energy transfer between grapheme oxide and I3−

Sb(III) was reduced to SbH3 gas and introduced to the I3−-grapheme oxide (GO) or I3−-silver nanorod (AgNR)-Victoria blue B (VBB) solutions. Resonance Rayleigh scattering energy transfer (RRS-ET) occurred between the donor GO and the acceptor I3− due to the overlap between the absorption peak of I3− and RRS peak of GO. When I3− was reduced by SbH3, RRS-ET weakened and the RRS intensity enhanced. The increased RRS intensity was linear to Sb concentration in the range of 2.1-376.6 μg/L. In the I3−-AgNR-VBB solution, I3− combined with VBB to form VBB-I3 and there was a weak surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) effect. When SbH3 reduced I3−, the SERS intensity increased due to the release of SERS active VBB. The enhanced SERS intensity was linear for Sb concentration in the range of 8.4-292.9 μg/L. The RRS-ET method was applied for determination of Sb in food with satisfactory results.