Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy: A Novel Physical Chemistry Experiment for the Undergraduate Laboratory

Weaver, Gabriela C.; Norrod, Karen L.

doi:10.1021/ed075p621

Cited by 25 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Thorough and elaborate chemical and physical processing methods are followed to make these nanostructures. Often these processes are complicated, expensive, and time-consuming. − …”

Section: Objective and Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering on Chemically Etched Copper Surface: An Upper-Level Spectroscopic Measurement and Analysis

et al. 2019

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Raman spectroscopy is an important vibrational spectroscopy tool to characterize chemical compounds. As only a few photons undergo Raman scattering, enhancement of signal is a vital requirement. In this laboratory experiment, some practical aspects of Raman spectroscopy and how a simple enhancement procedure can be used to detect a Raman signal has been described. An acid etching procedure has been used to create a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate, and its effectiveness has been demonstrated with successful detection of the parts per million level of methylene blue. This work is relevant to upper-level undergraduate or graduate-level laboratory course preparation as the procedure is simple enough to be easily reproducible in a typical chemistry laboratory.

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“…Thorough and elaborate chemical and physical processing methods are followed to make these nanostructures. Often these processes are complicated, expensive, and time-consuming. − …”

Section: Objective and Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering on Chemically Etched Copper Surface: An Upper-Level Spectroscopic Measurement and Analysis

et al. 2019

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“…Other syntheses, in contrast, generally take significant time 18 and require heating 16 or cooling 17 of the reagents.…”

Section: Colloid Synthesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Achieving Very Low Levels of Detection: An Improved Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Experiment for the Physical Chemistry Teaching Laboratory

McMillan¹

2016

J. Chem. Educ.

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This experiment was designed and successfully introduced to complement the nanochemistry taught to undergraduate students in a useful and interesting way. Colloidal Ag nanoparticles were synthesized by a simple, room-temperature method and the resulting suspension was then used to study the Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) of methylene blue. The colloid was also characterized by UV-Visible spectroscopy and these results were used to help explain some of the observed SERS features. The students looked at the effects of concentration and acquisition time on the measured SERS spectra, and the final part of the experiment was based around using their newly-acquired knowledge to investigate the lowest concentration of methylene blue that could be detected. Concentrations of 5×10-10 M were routinely achieved. The combination of UV-Visible spectroscopy, SERS and nanochemistry made for an interesting and thought-provoking laboratory experience.

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“…The simplest and most common method of synthesizing spherical metal nanoparticles is by chemical reaction in solution, usually by reducing the metal salts with a variety of reducing and capping agents. Typical chemical reducing agents include sodium citrate [23], sodium borohydride [24], hydrazine [25] and hydroxylamine hydrochloride [26,27]. Through control of the reaction temperature, pH of the solution and, most importantly, the kind of metal salt, reductant and surfactant, the size and size distribution and even the aggregation state of metal nanoparticles can be controlled.…”

Section: Chemical Reaction For Metal Nanoparticle Preparationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanoparticle SERS Substrates

Wang

2010

Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

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IntroductionSince the discovery that high-intensity Raman scattering of small molecules could be obtained on electrochemical roughened silver surface by Fleischmann et al. [1] in 1974, who attributed the high enhancement to the large number of molecules on the roughened surface, and Jeanmaire et al. 's [2] and Creighton et al.'s [3] independent discovery in 1977 that the enhancement of the Raman scattering is related to an intrinsic surface enhancement effect, marking the beginning of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy [4], substantial interest has been focussed on the research of the fabrication of SERS-active substrates and on the applications of SERS to many fields, including surface, analytical and life sciences. Meanwhile, investigations of the enhancement mechanisms responsible for the extraordinarily large enhancement of Raman signal of the adsorbate on the roughened metal surfaces have never stopped, and now it is widely accepted that there are two separate mechanisms that describe the overall SERS effect: the electromagnetic effect (EM) and chemical effect (CM). The EM mechanism is based on the interaction of the transition moment of an adsorbed molecule with the electric field of surface plasmons induced by the incoming light on the metal [5-9], which is an effect independent of the probe molecules. For the EM mechanism, the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) plays a key and dominant role in the overall enhancement; whereas the CM is due to the interaction of the adsorbed molecules on the metal with the metal surface, mostly from the first layer of the charge-transfer resonance between the adsorbate and the metal [10-12].More than 30 years have passed since the initial discovery of SERS and the research activity in this field has dramatically increased due to the improvement in techniques resulting from advances in nanotechnology and improved instrumental capabilities. Therefore, SERS has now become a very useful tool in various fields including chemistry, physics and biology. Among these, the basic focus as well as the key step for practical SERS applications is still the successful fabrication of the SERS substrate because the application really depends on the activity and reproducibility of the substrate. The first used SERS substrate was a roughened electrode obtained

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Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy: A Novel Physical Chemistry Experiment for the Undergraduate Laboratory

Cited by 25 publications

References 14 publications

Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering on Chemically Etched Copper Surface: An Upper-Level Spectroscopic Measurement and Analysis

Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering on Chemically Etched Copper Surface: An Upper-Level Spectroscopic Measurement and Analysis

Achieving Very Low Levels of Detection: An Improved Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Experiment for the Physical Chemistry Teaching Laboratory

Nanoparticle SERS Substrates

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