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.

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.

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.

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。

EFFECT OF SOLVENT ON SURFACE ENHANCED RAMAN SCATTERING SPECTRA OF COLLOIDAL SILVER

The effect of solvent on surface enhanced Raman scattering [SERS) of colloidal silver has been studied. Experiments show that the intensity of SERS is related to the polarity and molecular constitution of the solvent. The influence of solvent is due to the change of the adsorption quantity and adsorption intensity.

Raman and Surface-enhanced Raman Scattering of Chlorophenols

Raman spectrum is a powerful analytical tool for determining the chemical information of compounds. In this study, we obtained analytical results of chlorophenols（CPs） molecules including 4-chlorophenol（4-CP）, 2,6-dich- lorophenol（2,6-DCP） and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol（2,4,6-TCP） on the surface of Ag dendrites by surface-enhanced Raman scattering（SERS） spectra. SEM images indicate that the SERS substrate of Ag dendrites is composed of a large number of polygonal nanocrystallites, which self-assembled into a 3D hierarchical structure. It was found that there were distinct differences for those three molecules from Raman and SERS spectra. This indicates that SERS could be a new tool of detection technique regarding trace amounts of CPs.

Controllable Silver Plating on Silica for Surface-enhanced Raman Scattering

We proposed a facile and rapid method for preparing silica-silver core-shell（SSCS） substrates to use Ag electroless plating on SiO2@Au-seed particles.UV-Vis-NIR absorption spectrometer and SEM were employed to monitor the reaction process of the formation of Ag on the surfaces of silica beads,and the optical resonance of the substrate could shift from visible to NIR region.It has been found that surface-enhanced Raman scattering（SERS） enhancement changes with the electroless plating time and the SSCS substrate with the plating time of 90 s（90SSCS） shows the strongest SERS response under the laser excitation at 514.5 nm.Signals collected over multiple spots and substrate of rhodamine 6G（R6G） resulted in a relative standard deviation（RSD） of 9.75%.The calculated enhancement factor（EF） was approximately 105 ＂106.SSCS substrate exhibits high SERS performance,which is due to electromagnetic SERS enhancement with additional localization field within closely packed Ag nanoparticles decorated on the SiO2 nanoparticles.And this substrate presents tunable and broad localized surface plasmon resonance（LSPR）,so this method may open a new way for SERS studies with other laser excitation.

Molybdenum Nanoscrews:A Novel Non-coinage-Metal Substrate for Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering

For the first time, Mo nanoscrew was cultivated as a novel non-coinage-metal substrate for surface-enhanced Raman scattering(SERS). It was found that the nanoscrew is composed of many small screw threads stacking along its length direction with small separations. Under external light excitation, strong electromagnetic coupling was initiated within the gaps, and many hot-spots formed on the surface of the nanoscrew, which was confirmed by high-resolution scanning near-field optical microscope measurements and numerical simulations using finite element method. These hotspots are responsible for the observed SERS activity of the nanoscrews. Raman mapping characterizations further revealed the excellent reproducibility of the SERS activity. Our findings may pave the way for design of low-cost and stable SERS substrates.

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。

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.

SURFACE ENHANCED RAMAN SPECTRA OF PHENYLMERCAPTOTETRAZOLE AND MERCAPTOBENZOTHIAZOLE ON SILVER

Normal Haman Spectra(NRS) of solid PMT (1-phenyl-5-mercaptotetrazole) and MBT (2-mercaptobenzothiazole) and their surface enhanced Raman spectra (SERS) adsorbed on the surface of the silver subcolloidal particles are reported and compared. It is supposed that PMT adsorbed on silver with both N and S atoms whereas MBT may be adsorbed on silver through S atom.

SURFACE ENHANCED RAMAN SCATTERING OF C_(60) FILMS ON VARIOUS ACTIVE SUBSTRATES

In this paper,we report the study of surface-enhanced Raman Scattering of C_(60)films on roughed Ag,Cu and glass surface.The experiment results indicate that the C_(60)films on Ag substrate possess large enhance effect.An explanation of the enhancement with roughed glass surface is proposed based on waveguide Raman Scattering.