**Rapid Tartrazine Determination in Large Yellow Croaker with Ag Nanowires Using Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy**

### **Jia Song 1, Yuanyi Zhang 1, Yiqun Huang 2, Yuxia Fan 1,3 and Keqiang Lai 1,3,\***


Received: 1 November 2018; Accepted: 17 November 2018; Published: 23 November 2018

**Abstract:** In this work, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) technology coupled with Ag nanowires was shown to be a promising tool in the detection of tartrazine in large yellow croaker for the first time. Ag nanowires with a uniform diameter were fabricated by an efficient and manageable polyol method. The partial least square model was established for the quantitative analysis of tartrazine, which showed a relatively high linear correlation between actual and predicted concentrations of standard tartrazine solutions. An optimal sample preparation method was also selected and used to extract tartrazine from large yellow croaker within 20 min. The lowest concentration detected was 20.38 ng/cm2, which fully meets the requirements of tartrazine testing in aquatic products. This study indicated that SERS technology combined with the as-prepared Ag nanowires could detect tartrazine sensitively and provide an easily operable and time-saving way to monitor tartrazine in large yellow croaker.

**Keywords:** SERS; Ag nanowires; tartrazine; large yellow croaker
