Detection of benzo[a]pyrene with silver nanorod substrate in river water and soil based on surface-enhanced raman scattering

•Fast and nondestructive method was provided for benzo[a]pyrene detection.•Detection of benzo[a]pyrene in actual river and soil samples was realized.•Limit of detection meets requirement of environmental standards. Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) widely presents in soot, tar, cigarette smoke, and has a strong carcinogenic effect. It is stable in the environment and accumulates through the biological chain. Therefore, it is of vital importance to develop a simple and rapid method to detect Bap in real environment. In this work, based on surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technology, a silver nanorod (AgNR) substrate was developed for detecting BaP in river water and soil. Vibration modes of BaP’s characteristic peaks were calculated by density functional theory (DFT). The characteristic peak of BaP is at 1234 cm−1. In the range of 10 ~ 100 ppb, the characteristic peak intensity of BaP shows good linear relationship with the concentration. The limit of detection (LOD) is down to 1 ppm in river water and 10 ppm in soil, respectively. These results demonstrate the applicability of the AgNR substrate for SERS detection of BaP which present an application prospect of AgNR substrate in environmental detection.