Facile electrochemical surface-alloying and etching of Au wires to enable high-performance substrates for surface enhanced Raman scattering

Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy(SERS)is a nondestructive technique for rapid detection of analytes even at the single-molecule level.However,highly sensitive and reliable SERS substrates are mostly fabricated with complex nanofabrication techniques,greatly restricting their practical applications.A convenient electrochemical method for transforming the surface of commercial gold wires/foils into silver-alloyed nanostructures is demonstrated in this report.Au substrates are treated with repetitive anodic and cathodic bias in an electrolyte of thiourea,in a one-pot one-step manner.X-rays absorption fine structure(XAFS)spectroscopy confirms that the AuAg alloy is induced at the surface.The unique AuAg alloyed surface nanostructures are particularly advantageous when served as SERS substrates,enabling a remarkably sensitive detection of Rhodamine B(a detection limit of 10^(-14)M,and uniform strong response throughout the substrates at 10^(-12)M).

STUDY ON PHOTO-INDUCED ORIENTATION OF A NOVEL PHOTO-ALIGNMENT FILM WITH SURFACE ENHANCED RAMAN SCATTERING (SERS) SPECTROSCOPY

Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy was first utilized to study the photo-orientation behaviour of the photoreactive groups on a novel photo-alignment film surface and elucidate the generation mechanism of pretilt angle. The novel photo-alignment film was prepared by spin-coating a solution of ladderlike polysiloxane (LPS) bearing dual photoreactive group on an ITO surface and by irradiation with linear-polarized ultraviolet (LPUV) light A Si—H terminal compound (M) containing an identical photosensitive part has been used to fabricate a model film for SERS investigation.

Application of Monodisperse Thermo-Responsive Composite Microgels with Core-Shell Structure Based on Au@Ag Bimetallic Nanorod as Core in Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Substrate

The monodisperse Au@Ag bimetallic nanorod is encapsulated by crosslinked poly( N-isopropylacrylamide)( PNIPAM) to produce thermo-responsive composite microgel with well-defined core-shell structure( Au@ Ag NR@ PNIPAM microgel)by seed-precipitation polymerization method using butenoic acid modified Au @ Ag NRs as seeds. When the temperature of the aqueous medium increases from 20℃ to 50℃,the localized surface plasmon resonance( LSPR) band of the entrapped Au @ Ag NR is pronouncedly red-shifted because of the decreased spatial distances between them as a result of shrinkage of the microgels,leading to their plasmonic coupling. The temperature tunable plasmonic coupling is demonstrated by temperature dependence of the surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy( SERS) signal of 1-naphthol in aqueous solution. Different from static plasmonic coupling modes from nanostructured assembly or array system of noble metals,the proposed plasmonic coupling can be dynamically controlled by environmental temperature. Therefore, the thermo responsive hybrid microgels have potential applications in mobile LSPR or SERS microsensors for living tissues or cells.

Role of Raman spectroscopy and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy in colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer(CRC) is the fourth most commoncancer in the United Kingdom and is the second largest cause of cancer related death in the United Kingdom after lung cancer.Currently in the United Kingdom there is not a diagnostic test that has sufficient differentiation between patients with cancer and those without cancer so the current referral system relies on symptomatic presentation in a primary care setting.Raman spectroscopy and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy(SERS) are forms of vibrational spectroscopy that offer a nondestructive method to gain molecular information about biological samples.The techniques offer a wide range of applications from in vivo or in vitro diagnostics using endoscopic probes,to the use of micro-spectrometers for analysis of biofluids.The techniques have the potential to detect molecular changes prior to any morphological changes occurring in the tissue and therefore could offer many possibilities to aid the detection of CRC.The purpose of this review is to look at the current state of diagnostic technology in the United Kingdom.The development of Raman spectroscopy and SERS in clinical applications relation for CRC will then be discussed.Finally,future areas of research of Raman/SERS as a clinical tool for the diagnosis of CRC are also discussed.

Sensitive and Label-Free Detection of Protein Secondary Structure by Amide Ⅲ Spectral Signals using Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

Proteins and peptides perform a vital role in living systems, however it remains a challenge for accurate description of proteins at the molecular level. Despite that surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) can provide the intrinsic fingerprint information of samples with ultrahigh sensitivity, it suffers from the poor reproducibility and reliability. Herein, we demonstrate that the silver nanorod array fabricated by an oblique angle deposition method is a powerful substrate for SERS to probe the protein secondary structures without exogenous labels. With this method, the SERS signals of two typical proteins (lysozyme and cytochrome c) are successfully obtained. Additionally, by analyzing the spectral signals of the amide Ⅲ of protein backbone, the influence of concentration on the folding status of proteins has been elucidated. With the concentration increasing, the components of α-helix and β-sheet structures of lysozyme increase while the secondary structures of cytochrome c almost keep constant. The SERS method in this work offers an effective optical marker to characterize the structures of proteins.

Self-assembly 2D plasmonic nanorice film for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

As an ultrasensitive sensing technology,the application of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy(SERS)is one interesting topic of nano-optics,which has huge application prospectives in plenty of research fields.In recent years,the bottleneck in SERS application could be the fabrication of SERS substrate with excellent enhancement.In this work,a two-dimensional(2D)Ag nanorice film is fabricated by self-assembly method as a SERS substrate.The collected SERS spectra of various molecules on this 2D plasmonic film demonstrate quantitative detection could be performed on this SERS substrate.The experiment data also demonstrate this 2D plasmonic film consisted of anisotropic nanostructures has no obvious SERS polarization dependence.The simulated electric field distribution points out the SERS enhancement comes from the surface plasmon coupling between nanorices.And the SERS signals is dominated by molecules adsorbed at different regions of nanorice surface at various wavelengths,which could be a good near IR SERS substrate for bioanalysis.Our work not only enlarges the surface plasmon properties of metal nanostructure,but also exhibits the good application prospect in SERS related fields.

Fast Quantification of the Mixture of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Using Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Combined with PLS-GA-BP Network

To realize the fast and accurate quantitative analysis of the mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs),surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy(SERS)coupled with multivariate calibrations were employed.In this study,three kinds of calibration algorithms were used to quantitative analysis of the mixture of naphthalene(Nap),phenanthrene(Phe),and pyrene(Pyr).Firstly,partial least squares(PLS)algorithm was used to select characteristic variables,then the global search capability of genetic algorithm(GA)was used for the determining of the initial weights and thresholds of back propagation(BP)neural network so that local minima was avoided.The PLS-GA-BP model exhibited superiority to quantify PAHs mixture,which achieved R2=0.9975,0.9710,0.9643,ARE=10.07%,19.28%,16.72%and RMSE=13.10,5.40,5.10 nmol L−1 for Nap,Phe,Pyr(in the PAHs mixture)concentration prediction respectively.The forecast error,ARE and RMSE have been reduced more than 50%and 60%respectively compared with the whole spectral BP model.The study indicates that accurate quantitative spectroscopic analysis of the mixture of PAHs samples can be achieved through the combination of SERS technique and PLS-GA-BP algorithm.

Surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering spectroscopy of single R6G molecules

Surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering （SERRS） of Rhodamine 6G （R6G） adsorbed on colloidal silver clusters has been studied. Based on the great enhancement of the Raman signal and the quench of the fluorescence, the SERRS spectra of R6G were recorded for the samples of dye colloidal solution with different concentrations. Spectral inhomogeneity behaviours from single molecules in the dried sample films were observed with complementary evidences, such as spectral polarization, spectral diffusion, intensity fluctuation of vibrational lines and even ＂breathing＂ of the molecules. Sequential spectra observed from a liquid sample with an average of 0.3 dye molecules in the probed volume exhibited the expected Poisson distribution for actually measuring 0, 1 or 2 molecules. Difference between the SERRS spectra of R6G excited by linearly and circularly polarized light were experimentally measured.

Rapid Identification of Legionella Pathogenicity by Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

Objective To establish Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy（SERS） can be used as a rapid and reliable method to distinguish virulent strain and mild strain of L. pneumophila. Methods We isolated and characterized of bacterial strains from ATCC and water samples strains, while we analyzed data from SERS technology using gold nanoparticles as a base and cell infections were employed to rapidly detect L. pneumophila strains. Origin 8.0 was used to collect Raman spectra, smooth and homogenize data, and to contrast spectra. Principal component analysis（PCA） was conducted to discriminate differences between groups using the multivariate analysis package Py Chem 3.0.5. Results Our results indicated that the peaks of high virulence strains reached ≥4000. This criterion was verified by subsequent cell experiments. In addition, we also conducted SERS rapid identification on the virulence of several collected clinical strains and obtained accurate results. Conclusion The present study indicates that the established SERS protocol can be used as a rapid and reliable method to distinguish virulent and mildly virulent strains of L. pneumophila, which can be further used in clinical samples.

Monitoring the penetration and accumulation of gold nanoparticles in rat skin ex vivo using surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy

Contamination by accidental cutaneous contact with the commercial products and the air pol-hutants raised a considerable health and safety issue.This study aimed to trace the dynamics of the 20 nm gold nanopartide(GNP)penetration and accumulation in rat skin tissues using a surface-enhanced Raman scattering(SERS)techmique.After the topical application of GNPs on rat skin surface,the SERS spectra were recorded for every 15 pum to an overall depth of 75 pum from skin surface for 150 min.The processes of GNP penetration in rat skin were accompanied by aggregation of GNPs,which affected SERS spectra.The results revealed that 20 nm GNPs can penetrate through stratum corneum layer,viable epidermis layer,and then into dermis layer.This study demonstrated for the first time the potential of SERS spectroscopy to monitor the penetration and accumulation of GNPs in rat skin.

THE CHARACTERIZATION OF SILVER SUBCOLLOID USED IN SURFACE ENHANCED RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY

A clear light-yellow silver sol which has the visible spectral absorption at 390 nm, when adsorbed phenylmercaptotetrazole(PMT) or mercaptobenzothiazole(MBT), has a new absorption at 510-550 nm. It was found that the adsorption of halide ions competes with PMT and MBT. However, halide ions have a completely different influence from PMT and MBT on the spectral absorption of the silver sol. The differences may result from the change of the properties of the surface of the silver subcolloidal particles and from the bond forms combining adsorbates with the substrates.

柠檬汁还原法制备AgNPs用于果蔬农药残留的SERS快速检测

[目的/意义]为满足目前市场上对农产品农药残留的快速灵敏检测需求,报道一种基于柠檬汁还原制备银纳米粒子(AgNPs)的方法。[方法]首先将新鲜柠檬汁经滤纸过滤,稀释成2%的柠檬汁水溶液,再配制一定浓度的AgNO3溶液、50 mM的NaOH溶液,放置室温保存。然后在室温下,将10 mL的ddH2O、2mL的NaOH、2mL的2%柠檬汁和5 mL的AgNO3溶液混合,待溶液颜色变为澄清的黄色时,溶液离心即可获得AgNPs。[结果和讨论]该方法制备的AgNPs,其颗粒形貌大小基本均一,约为20 nm,具有很好的表面增强拉曼散射(Surface Enhancement of Raman Scattering,SERS)增强效应,即良好的SERS信号稳定性,较强的SERS增强性能。该胶体中AgNPs分散较均匀,并且具有较长时间储存的稳定性,因此可用于微量农残检测。柠檬汁中主要还原成分抗坏血酸、葡萄糖和果糖,其含量分别为395.76μg/mL、5.95 mg/mL和5.90 mg/mL。将柠檬汁还原法制备的AgNPs用于果蔬表面农残检测,对于百草枯、多菌灵的检出限分别最低至3.90 ng/kg及0.22μg/kg。[结论]这项工作为果蔬农残快检提供了一种绿色、便捷的SERS材料制备方法,为实现农产品农药残留的快速、灵敏检测提供一种新的途径。

SERS光谱技术在结直肠癌诊断中的应用效果

选取扬州大学附属江都人民医院收集的50例结直肠癌组血清和50例健康组血清。以金纳米星(AuNS)为基底,利用Renishaw inVia Reflex激光共焦Raman光谱仪,对血清样本的表面增强Raman散射(SERS)光谱进行测定。借助Origin 2021对Min-Max归一化后平均光谱的特征峰分析,并用主成分分析(PCA)-K最邻近(KNN)模型对关键特征提取、分类。结果表明AuNS基底具有良好的均匀性、灵敏度和洁净性。结直肠癌患者在572、633、873、1065、1314、1417和1655 cm^(-1)特征峰处强度明显高于健康组,在1000和1536 cm^(-1)特征峰处强度低于健康组。PCA-KNN模型的准确率达到95%,灵敏度、特异性和曲线下的面积(AUC)分别达到90.0%、96.7%和0.933。结合PCA-KNN模型和SERS光谱技术可实现对结直肠癌快速、准确的识别,为诊断结肠癌提供了一种探索性的新方法。

基于Ni纳米颗粒的SERS基底制备及其性能

以Ni纳米材料为研究对象,提出了一种新的基于超声辅助的表面增强Raman散射(SERS)基底的制备方法,以实现对生物分子罗丹明6G(R6G)的高灵敏检测。首先,通过超声辅助法制备Ni纳米溶液,然后,采用旋涂法制备SERS基底,以R6G为探针分子,研究了基底的SERS活性、重复性以及在基底制备过程中加入表面活性剂甲基丙烯酸甲酯(MMA)对基底SERS活性的影响。结果表明,在加入MMA的实验条件下,基底表面的纳米颗粒分散更加均匀,能提供的SERS热点更多,有助于增强基底的SERS强度。该SERS基底对R6G的最低检测限(LOD)为1×10^(-6)mol/L,增强因子约为2.56×10^(4),重复性测试的相对标准偏差为10.19%(R6G浓度为1×10^(4)mol/L)。该方法经济、简单、快速、有效,可以作为未来生物传感应用的候选方法。

液相剥离自组装法制备AgNPs/MoS_(2)复合SERS基底及其性能

二维纳米材料因其原子级厚度、可调的带隙以及高比表面积等特点,在表面增强拉曼散射(SERS)领域展现出巨大的应用潜力。当二维材料与金属纳米颗粒结合时,其SERS性能显著增强。本工作提出一种简便的复合基底制备方法,结合银纳米颗粒(AgNPs)优异的导电性能,良好的透光性和弯曲柔韧性,采用天然二硫化钼粉末作为原料,通过一步法实现二维材料直接液相剥离与AgNPs原位合成。通过单因素分析法确定硝酸银与二硫化钼的质量比、机械搅拌转速、超声时间的影响范围,再利用响应面分析法设计优化实验条件。当硝酸银和二硫化钼的质量比为5∶1、机械搅拌转速为1000 r/min、超声时间为3 h时,所制备的SERS基底在检测低浓度孔雀石绿时表现出高的灵敏度和良好的线性关系,增强因子达到四个数量级。

原位SERS研究Au纳米结构表面SPR催化对硝基碘苯偶联反应

表面增强拉曼光谱(SERS)因其极高灵敏度和表面特异性,可用于表面等离激元共振(SPR)催化反应过程的原位监测。利用SERS技术原位研究对硝基碘苯(PNIB)在贵金属纳米粒子表面的催化偶联反应过程。研究了激光功率、波长及基底对催化偶联的影响,初步研究了该偶联反应的机理。研究表明,PNIB在金纳米粒子单层膜(Au MLF)表面发生SPR催化偶联反应生成1,2-双(4-碘苯基)二氮烯,增大激光功率可使反应达到平衡时间明显缩短。Au@Ag纳米膜表面偶联效率提高了约10倍,不同基底表面的偶联反应活性为Au@Ag(532nm)>Au@Ag(638nm)>Au(638nm)。该反应为热电子诱导的还原反应。

离子液体中PMBA脱羧反应及界面水影响的电化学SERS研究

基于气-液界面自组装法和转移技术制备了负载Au纳米粒子单层膜的玻碳电极(Au MLF@GC),并将其用于离子液体-电化学体系界面过程现场的研究.以对巯基苯甲酸(PMBA)的表面等离激元共振(SPR)催化脱羧生成苯硫酚(TP)反应为探针,采用电化学-表面增强拉曼光谱(SERS)技术,通过电位阶跃法研究了其在离子液体体系中的反应动力学行为.结果表明,亲水性离子液体[BMIm]BF_(4)/Au MLF@GC的零电荷电位(pzc)为−0.95 V,PMBA脱羧反应仅在pzc以正区间发生;通过SERS谱峰强度变化以二级反应拟合获得该反应的速率常数,发现其反应速率常数的对数与阶跃后电位呈线性关系;随着体系外加水的含量(摩尔分数)由0增至0.001和0.003,阶跃后发生脱羧反应的起始电位负移,且同一阶跃电位下反应速率常数随着外加水量的增加而增大.

葡萄蒸馏酒中氨基甲酸乙酯的SERS检测研究

氨基甲酸乙酯是一种广泛存在于葡萄酒、酱油、泡菜等发酵食品中的发酵产物,由于其具有毒性和致癌性,可在生物体内积累产生多种病变,已成为现代食品加工行业的潜在威胁。氨基甲酸乙酯传统检测方法存在样品前处理过程繁琐、分析时间长、仪器设备昂贵、对测试人员的要求较高等缺点,不能对大批样本量进行快速检测。亟需研究一种快速、准确、高效的氨基甲酸乙酯检测方法。表面增强拉曼光谱(SERS)技术具有灵敏度高、高选择性、抗光漂白、响应时间短和非破坏性等特点,SERS克服了拉曼光谱的散射信号微弱、背景干扰大等问题,可实现快速对痕量物质的定性、定量检测分析,在食品安全检测领域展现出了较好的应用前景。采用表面增强拉曼光谱技术对葡萄蒸馏酒中氨基甲酸乙酯含量进行了快速检测研究,以银纳米球硅锥阵列和金银合金纳米球硅锥阵列为SERS基底,探究了SERS基底结构、混合时间、基底保存时间和激发波长对拉曼散射信号的影响,并确定最佳SERS基底。结果表明,以Ag-Au/SiNCA为SERS增强基底,当激发波长为785nm,混合时间为60min,银纳米颗粒厚度为10nm时可以获得较好的拉曼信号。利用密度泛函理论对氨基甲酸乙酯分子基团进行谱峰归属分析,确定了葡萄蒸馏酒中氨基甲酸乙酯定量分析的特征峰位1442cm^(-1),以1442cm^(-1)处特征峰的峰强与EC浓度建立了线性方程,该方程在1×10^(-3)~1×10^(-8)mol·L^(-1)浓度范围内线性关系良好,决定系数R^(2)=0.8213,该方法回收率在83.06%~110.00%之间,最低检出限可达到3.28×10^(-8)mol·L^(-1),每个样本检测约在6min内完成。该方法的建立为酒精饮料中EC的快速检测提供了思路和参考。

基于SERS的苹果树腐烂病原菌早期侵染检测

为了早期诊断由黑腐皮壳真菌(Valsa mali Miyabe et Yamada)引起的苹果树腐烂病,该研究基于表面增强拉曼光谱(surface-enhanced Raman scattering,SERS)技术,以腐烂病菌丝、病原菌丝侵染的苹果树和健康的苹果树枝作为研究对象,结合S-G平滑和迭代自适应加权惩罚最小二乘法进行拉曼光谱预处理,经解析发现病原菌丝与染菌样本在1 598、1 595 cm^(-1)和2 930、2 925 cm^(-1)附近敏感谱峰明显区别于健康样本。重复试验分析发现,病原菌侵染可致寄主特征谱峰偏移以及谱峰强度改变:健康样本在1 286 cm^(-1)附近的特征峰随病原菌的侵染偏移至1 365 cm^(-1)附近;健康样本在1 286与1 587 cm^(-1)附近的谱峰强度比值小于0.5,染菌样本在1 365与1 595 cm^(-1)附近的谱峰强度比值大于0.5,而菌丝在1 327与1 598 cm^(-1)附近的谱峰强度比值大于1.0;1 595 cm^(-1)附近谱峰强度因染病而增强。构建BP神经网络模型进行早期染病样本的快速判别,识别率达90%以上。研究表明SERS技术结合BP神经网络可以准确识别苹果树腐烂病原菌丝,从而进行苹果树枝腐烂病的早期诊断,为植物病害的早期快速诊断和病害发生预警提供了研究思路和有效手段。

棉织物负载纳米粒子自组装阵列基底构建及其SERS应用研究

纤维基柔性表面增强拉曼光谱(SERS)基底的设计与开发是当前SERS研究实用化的热点。构建用于不规则固体表面上分析物的可靠痕量检测的柔性SERS基底仍具有挑战性。实现柔性多孔渗透性纤维表面大面积无缺陷的纳米颗粒单层膜的组装是解决SERS可靠性的要素之一。本研究采用三相界面自组装技术,成功在多孔渗透性棉织物上组装了大面积密排的金属纳米颗粒单层膜,通过调控纳米粒子表面包裹剂的浓度和类型,对球状金纳米粒子、板状银纳米粒子和棒状金纳米粒子实现了普适性组装和转移,得到了均匀表面且覆盖率高的棉织物SERS基底。以罗丹明6G(R6G)为探针分子,探究了各向异性金属纳米粒子复合SERS棉织物的增强能力。结果表明负载球状金纳米粒子自组装阵列的SERS棉织物具有更高的检测灵敏度和更好的均匀性,检测限低至1×10^(-9)mol/L,峰强度间的相对标准偏差为6.79%。对探针分子4-巯基吡啶(4-MPy)和4-氨基苯硫酚(4-ATP)的检测限分别为1×10^(-12)mol/L和1×10^(-10)mol/L。进一步地,用该棉织物SERS基底开展了痕量福美双的检测研究,其检测限低至0.005 mg/kg,在0.01~1000 mg/kg浓度区间内,福美双浓度的对数与SERS强度具有良好的线性关系。采用简单的“擦拭-吸附”法可直接提取苹果表面残留的福美双并检测,检测限低至0.2 ng/cm^(2),满足检测需求。由此可见,发展基于棉织物表面纳米粒子组装方法对柔性SERS基底的实用化研究具有重要的意义和应用前景。