Raman spectroscopy of dipyrrins: nonresonant,resonant and surface‐enhanced cross‐sections and enhancement factors

Detailed studies of the mechanism of surface‐enhanced (resonance) Raman spectroscopy (SE(R)RS), and its applications, place a number of demands on the properties of SERS scatterers. With large Raman cross‐sections, versatile synthetic chemistry and complete lack of fluorescence, free dipyrrins meet these demands but the Raman and SE(R)RS spectroscopy of free dipyrrins is largely unknown. The first study of the Raman spectroscopy of free dipyrrins is therefore presented in this work. The nonresonant Raman, resonant Raman and surface‐enhanced Raman spectra of a typical meso aryl‐substituted‐dipyrrin are reported. Absolute differential cross‐sections are obtained for excitation wavelengths in the near infrared and visible region, in solution phase and for dipyrrin adsorbed on the surface of silver nanoparticles. Raman enhancement factors for SERRS and resonance Raman are calculated from the observed differential cross‐sections. The magnitudes of the resonantly enhanced cross‐sections are similar to those recently reported for strong SERS dyes such as Rhodamine 6G and Crystal Violet. Free dipyrrins offer the advantages of existing SERS dyes but without the drawback of strong fluorescence. Free dipyrrins should therefore find applications in all areas of Raman spectroscopy including fundamental studies of the mechanisms of SERS and bioanalytical and environmental applications. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Time development of sers from pyridine,pyrimidine, pyrazine,and cyanide adsorbed on ag electrodes during an oxidation-reduction cycle

The time development of surface enhanced Raman scattering (SF.RS) from pyridinc, pyrimidine, pyrazine, and cyanide adsorbed on Ag electrodes has been recorded during an oxidation-reduction cycle by using an optical multichannel analyzer. The OMA system, capable of detecting spectra over a range of 400 cm^?1 in 25 ms, was employed to monitor changes in Raman intensities, frequency shifts, and linewidths. Whereas measurements on pyridine confirm previously reported results and resolve some controversial questions, results on pyrazine provide new insight into the SERS mechanism. Because of the inversion symmetry of pyrazine, the Raman and infrared active modes are separated, but no significant distinction is observed in the SERS time development of Raman active compared to infrared active modes. In SERS from cyanide, large changes in the C - N stretching frequency have been observed.     

Analysis of alizarin by surface‐enhanced and FT‐Raman spectroscopy

This paper presents the application of Raman spectroscopy (RS) for the structural study of alizarin adsorbed on a metallic surface. As a biologically active molecule, alizarin has remarkable antigenotoxic activity like other anthraquinone dyes. Alizarin is highly fluorescent and that limits the application of RS as an investigation method; however, the Fourier transform‐RS (FTRS) can be applied since the near‐infrared excitation line lies far away from the absorption region of alizarin. The surface enhanced‐RS (SERS) technique also makes the fluorescence quenching possible. In this work, monolayers of alizarin were deposited on the surface of an electrode by the immersion of silver substrates in methanolic solution of the analyte. From such prepared samples, by using the excitation of 488, 514.5 and 647.1 nm the Raman spectra were registered. Depending on the excitation line, SERS or surface‐enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) spectra of alizarin were observed. The interpretation of experimental data was supported by theoretical calculations. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SERS detection of polychlorinated biphenyls using β‐cyclodextrin functionalized gold nanoparticles on agriculture land soil

A highly sensitive surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) platform for the selective trace analysis of persistent organic pollutant (POP) such as polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) was reported based on β‐CD modified gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with the real environmental sample of polluted soil. The synthesized gold nanoparticles were characterized using UV–vis spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In polluted soil the presentation of PCB is confirmed by using GC‐MS. It is further verified and confirmed by using SERS. When the contaminated soil was added to the system, the binding of soil with β‐CD resulted in the aggregation of AuNPs, and excellent Raman signal was obtained which can reflect the isomers of polychlorinated biphenyls. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Detection of total protein in milk using phosphomolybdic acid‐mediated surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Although many surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)‐based methods for detecting specific proteins have been studied, simple and direct detection of total protein in liquid using a SERS‐based method remains difficult. In this study, a distinguishable effect on the SERS spectra from pre‐mixture of phosphomolybdic acid (PMA) with protein was found, indicating that PMA could be used as a SERS reporter for total protein detection in a liquid sample. Further experiments confirmed a good linear relationship between a premixed concentration of protein (casein, whey protein or bovine serum albumin) and the SERS intensity of PMA in our SERS system. Using casein as a reference, a PMA‐mediated SERS method was proposed that can quantitatively analyze protein at 2.5–25 µg/ml with a limit of detection of 1.5 µg/ml. Our PMA‐mediated SERS method is a simple and rapid method for quantitative analysis of total protein in milk. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Size‐dependent SERS enhancement of colloidal silver nanoplates: the case of 2‐amino‐5‐nitropyridine

Surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra of 2‐amino‐5‐nitropyridine (ANP) adsorbed on colloidal silver triangular nanoplates were obtained using samples with different mean sizes and surface plasmon frequencies. The relative SERS enhancement factor for each sample was determined by the analysis of the normalized SERS excitation profiles of ANP vibrational modes for nanoplates in suspension, without aggregation. The SERS profiles are blue‐shifted in relation to the localized surface plasmon peak. The detailed characterization of both morphology and concentration of the samples in addition to a rigorous normalization of the SERS spectra allowed a quantitative correlation between the SERS profiles and the mean size of the nanoplates. This correlation indicated the existence of an optimum size of the nanoplates for maximum Raman enhancement. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Near‐infrared surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (NIR‐SERS) studies on oxyheamoglobin (OxyHb) of liver cancer based on PVA‐Ag nanofilm

A near‐infrared surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (NIR‐SERS) method was employed for oxyheamoglobin (OxyHb) detection to develop a simple blood test for liver cancer detection. Polyvinyl alcohol protected silver nanofilm (PVA‐Ag nanofilm) used as the NIR‐SERS active substrate to enhance the Raman scattering signals of OxyHb. High quality NIR‐SERS spectrum from OxyHb adsorbed on PVA‐Ag nanofilm can be obtained within 16 s using a portable Raman spectrometer. NIR‐SERS measurements were performed on OxyHb samples of healthy volunteers (control subjects, n = 30), patients (n = 40) with confirmed liver cancer (stage I, II and III) and the liver cancer patients after surgery (n = 30). Meanwhile, the tentative assignments of the Raman bands in the measured NIR‐SERS spectra were performed, and the results suggested cancer specific changes on molecule level, including a decrease in the relative concentrations and the percentage of aromatic amino acids of OxyHb, changes of the vibration modes of the C_aH_m group and pyrrole ring of OxyHb of liver cancer patients. In this paper, principal component analysis (PCA) combined with independent sample T test analysis of the measured NIR‐SERS spectra separated the spectral features of the two groups into two distinct clusters with the sensitivity of 95.0% and the specificity of 85.7%. Meanwhile, the recovery situations of the liver cancer patients after surgery were also assessed using the method of discriminant analysis‐predicting group membership based on PCA. The results show that 26.7% surgeried liver cancer patients were distinguished as the normal subjects and 63.3% were distinguished into the cancer. Our study demonstrated great potentials for developing NIR‐SERS OxyHb analysis into a novel clinical tool for non‐invasive detection of liver cancers. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to the analysis of natural resins in artworks

Surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is rapidly growing as an analytical technique for the detection of extremely low concentrations of analytes. The analysis of natural resins from artworks is often restricted by sample size constraints in general, and Raman spectroscopy in particular is hampered by fluorescence when using visible irradiation wavelengths. This work demonstrates that SERS is able to overcome interference from fluorescence in such samples using the incident wavelength 514.5 nm, to allow collection of SERS spectra from extremely small samples. Characterisation of the natural resin surface coating from a painting by Tiepolo is discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sensitive Raman spectroscopy of lipids based on drop deposition using DCDR and SERS

Raman spectroscopy is widely used for study of lipids and membrane models. A severe limitation of this technique lies in the low Raman cross section requiring high sample concentrations. We report sensitive detection of synthetic 1,2‐dimyristoyl‐3‐trimethylammonium‐propane (DMTAP) lipid employing two Raman techniques with improved sensitivity: drop coating deposition Raman (DCDR) and surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopies. DCDR provided well‐reproducible DMTAP spectra without considerable loss of its solution properties if measured from the ‘coffee ring’ pattern of a drop dried on a SpectRIM^TM plate. DMTAP was detected at ~10 μM initial solution concentration, which is about three orders of magnitude lower than that for conventional Raman spectroscopy. Moreover, SERS spectra from dried ring of Ag hydrosol/DMTAP system were obtained down to ~0.3 μM DMTAP concentration, which means that sensitivity of SERS is about five orders of magnitude higher than that of conventional Raman spectroscopy. In contrast to the DCDR technique, good SERS spectra of DMTAP were obtained only from some spots of the ring containing big nanoparticle aggregates, and the structural properties of DMTAP were significantly perturbed by adsorption on the Ag nanoparticles. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Raman and surface enhanced Raman scattering of a black dyed silk

The Raman and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra of a black dyed silk sample (BDS) were registered. The spectral analysis was performed on the basis of Raman and SERS spectral data of isolated samples of Bombyx mori silk fibroin, its motif peptide component (GAGAGS) and the synthetic reactive black 5 dye (RB5). The macro FT‐Raman spectrum of the silk sample is consistent with a silk II‐Cp crystalline fraction of Bombyx mori silk fibroin; the SERS spectrum is highly consistent with conformational modifications of the fibroin due to the interactions with the Ag nanoparticles. The GAGAGS peptide sequence dominates the Raman spectrum of the silk. The SERS spectrum of the peptide suggests a random coil conformation imposed by the surface interaction; the serine residue in the new conformation is exposed to the surface. Quantum chemical calculations for a model of the GAGAGS–Ag surface predict a nearly extended conformation at the Ag surface. The Raman spectrum of the dye was analysed, and a complete band assignment was proposed; it was not possible to propose a preferential orientation or organization of the molecule on the metal surface. Quantum chemical calculations for a model of the dye interacting with a silver surface predict a rather coplanar orientation of the RB5 on the Ag metal surface. The Raman spectrum of the BDS sample is dominated by signals from the dye; the general spectral behaviour indicates that the dye mainly interacts with the silk through the sulphone (–SO₂–) and sulphonate (–SO₂–O–) groups. Besides the presence of dye signals, mainly ascribed to the sulphone and sulphonate bands, the SERS spectrum of the BDS sample also displays bands belonging to the amino acids alanine, glycine, serine and particularly tyrosine. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SPR and SERS characteristics of gold nanoaggregates with different morphologies

In this study, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) characteristics of gold nanoaggregates with different morphologies are examined to elucidate the correlation between SPR and SERS of the object. Nanoaggregates, defined as random aggregates (hereafter RA), elongated aggregates (hereafter EA) and two-dimensional layered aggregates (hereafter 2DLA) are fabricated by immobilizing colloidal gold nanoparticles on glass substrates. The color variation observed in the RA and EA samples indicates the variation in localized SPR excitations excited on the samples. The RA sample mostly shows a broadened and shifted SPR peak centered at 570 nm in addition to another peak in the longer wavelength region (∼700 nm), whereas in the EA sample a weak blue-shifted peak is observed near 450 nm in addition to a broadened peak centered at 570 nm covering a trail for another one near 700 nm. In the case of the 2DLA sample, more than one SPR peaks are observed in the longer wavelength region. The SERS observation confirms million times higher enhancement at least in Raman intensity using the gold nanoaggregates adsorbed by dye molecules. The EA sample of gold nanoparticles shows ∼5 times higher enhancement in Raman signal compared to that of the RA and 2DLA sample.     

Large-scale plasmonic-SERS templates by successive growth steps

This work presents the fabrication of large-scale tunable-plasmonic surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) templates and investigates their Raman enhancement. Substrates for SERS were prepared by deposition of gold nanoparticles on a glass slide followed by their growth. A plasmon shift was observed upon growing due to the formation of elongated nanoparticles and their mutual coupling. The changes in particle size, shape and interparticle distances were indicated by SEM measurements. Surface-enhanced Raman spectra of Nile blue A at a very low concentration on top of a blocking layer were measured. The overall Raman enhancement is correlated with the number of growth steps. For excitation at 532 nm four growth steps lead to maximum enhancement. Better overlap of excitation laser and the plasmon resonances upon growing increased the enhancement until four steps while further growing decreased the enhancement. At longer wavelengths excitation (633 and 785 nm) the enhancement further increased beyond the fourth growth step. This enhancement is caused by the plasmon excitation of narrower gap sizes. The proposed procedure for the SERS substrates is simple, allows covering large surface areas and plasmon band tuning from 530 nm to the near infrared in order to increase overall Raman enhancement.     

真菌鉴别和检测的SERS光谱技术研究进展

真菌是一种广泛存在于自然界的病原微生物,具有细胞核、细胞壁等结构,可以引起动、植物和人类的多种疾病。真菌感染是临床上常见的感染性疾病之一,使得近年来针对真菌的高效检测及真菌相关领域的研究备受关注。目前真菌的传统检测方法主要有培养、镜检与分子生物学检测法等,均具有操作复杂、耗时等缺点。表面增强拉曼散射(SERS)技术以其不受水分子干扰、能反应分子指纹信息、检测迅速等特点在真菌的检测与鉴别领域逐渐发挥出明显的优势。在简要介绍真菌的结构特点及真菌常用的检测方法基础之上,主要针对拉曼光谱(Raman spectrum)/SRES技术在真菌检测和鉴别中的应用进行调研和讨论。首先通过对Raman/SERS技术的特点以及真菌的结构特征进行解析,根据调研Raman/SERS技术用于真菌检测的相关文献,分析了SERS技术用于真菌检测的可行性,提出SERS技术在真菌检测时会面临检测灵敏度低、信号复杂、选择性和特异性差以及信号重现性和稳定性不佳等难点。为解决以上难题,分析了SERS的增强模式,重点针对SERS的纳米增强介质材料、SERS标签(SERS tag)的信号放大效应以及SERS光谱分析技术与微流控芯片分析技术结合等SERS分析新进展,予以了系统地综述和讨论。通过纳米材料选择和纳米微结构的构建,SERS增强介质所产生的SERS增强效应在真菌鉴别以及临床疾病快速诊断中显示出巨大的发展潜力;基于SERS tag产生的信号放大机制,可以有效提高真菌SERS检测的灵敏度、特异性和重现性;在微流控芯片中设计和集成SERS增强纳米微结构,构建基于SERS tag 的信号放大策略,开展针对真菌的快速高效测试方法研究,更有望实现真菌样本的高通量及高内涵SERS检测,其在真菌的鉴别和检测上显示出巨大的研究价值和应用前景。     

Characterization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons using Raman and surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous atmospheric pollutants and food contaminants, which exhibit potent carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, and teratogenicity. Vibrational spectroscopy techniques, especially Raman spectroscopy and surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), can be potentially used as an alternative technique to liquid and gas chromatography in PAH analysis. However, there is limited information on the intrinsic Raman and SERS fingerprints of PAHs. In this study, we have acquired the Raman and SERS spectra of seven PAH compounds and compared their experimental spectra with theoretical Raman spectra calculated by density function theory (DFT). The vibrational modes corresponding to the Raman peaks have also been assigned using DFT. Characteristic Raman and SERS peaks have been identified for five PAH compounds, and the limits of detection were estimated. Such information could be useful for developing SERS assays for simple and rapid PAH identification. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于银溶胶表面增强拉曼光谱对菠菜毒死蜱农药的快速检测

利用表面增强拉曼光谱(SERS)技术,建立了一种用于菠菜中毒死蜱农药残留的非破坏、快速检测方法。以碱性环境下盐酸羟胺还原法制备的银溶胶作为表面增强剂滴涂于菠菜样品表面后,采用实验室自行搭建的拉曼系统直接采集样品的拉曼信息,该方法无需对样品进行前处理,可以实现菠菜中毒死蜱含量的实时在线定量分析。采集24片不同毒死蜱含量的菠菜样品拉曼光谱,每个样品采集20个点。拉曼信号采集后,用气相色谱法对24个菠菜样品中毒死蜱含量进行检测。为了消除光谱噪音以及荧光背景对分析建模的影响,分别采用Savitzky-Golay平滑和有效峰线性拟合法对原始拉曼光谱进行预处理。该表面增强拉曼方法具有较好的重复性,实验中对50个相同毒死蜱含量,但不同状态的菠菜进行光谱采集,其相对标准偏差为13.4%,说明该方法具有一定的普适性。光谱预处理后,选取615.5~626.4 cm-1波段为感兴趣区域,建立0.05~37.4 mg·kg-1浓度范围内毒死蜱含量的多元线性预测模型,结果表明感兴趣区域的拉曼信号和毒死蜱浓度呈良好的线性关系,其校正集和验证集相关系数R_C和R_P分别为0.961和0.954。该方法的最低检出含量为0.05 mg·kg-1,低于国家标准规定的农药残留最大限量。该方法简单快速,无需样品前处理,可以实现果蔬的农药残留快速、定量检测。     

Bacterial mixture identification using Raman and surface‐enhanced Raman chemical imaging

The ability of normal Raman and surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) to identify and detect bacteria has shown great success in recent studies. The addition of silver nanoparticles to bacterial samples not only results in an enhanced Raman signal, but it also suppresses the native fluorescence associated with biological material. In this report, Raman chemical imaging (RCI) was used to analyze individual bacteria and complex mixtures of spores and vegetative cells. RCI uses every pixel or a binned pixel group (BPG) of the Raman camera as an independent Raman spectrograph, allowing collection of spatially resolved Raman spectra. The advantage of this technique resides primarily in the analysis of samples in complex backgrounds without the need for physically isolating or purifying the sample. Using a chemical imaging Raman microscope, we compare normal RCI to SERS‐assisted chemical imaging of mixtures of bacteria. In both cases, we are able to differentiate single bacterium in the Raman microscope's field of view, with a 60‐fold reduction in image acquisition time and a factor of 10 increase in the signal‐to‐noise ratio for SERS chemical imaging over normal RCI. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SERS标记免疫金溶胶的影响因素研究

将表面增强拉曼光谱(SIERS)的高度灵敏性应用于标记免疫检测,具有很大的意义。在“固相抗体-待测抗原-标记抗体”夹心复合物体系中,以(SERS)标记的金溶胶与抗体结合,制备标记抗体。以芳香族化合物苯硫酚为标记分子,与一定大小粒径的金纳米粒子形成S-Au键,生成带有SERS信号的标记金溶胶。表面带负电荷的标记金溶胶与带有正电荷基团的抗体形成牢固的标记免疫金溶胶。从金纳米粒子粒径的选择、在金溶胶中加入苯硫酚的量及反应时间、抗体对标记金溶胶标记分子的SERS信号的影响进行了研究。     

表面增强拉曼光谱(SERS)技术对非标记蛋白质的研究进展

基于表面增强拉曼光谱(SERS)技术在非标记蛋白质研究方面的最新进展。SERS是一个特殊的拉曼光谱现象,对于众多被吸附到粗糙金属表面上的拉曼活性分析物,可以提供增强拉曼信号(通常可以增强几个数量级)。SERS是一个灵敏的,选择性的,和通用的技术,并且可以实时、快速的对数据进行采集。因此,在基于仪器仪表技术和数据分析方法以及SERS在生物体系中的诸多优势,SERS经历了快速的发展阶段。重点介绍几个采用SERS技术对生物体系的代表性研究。某些SERS的生物应用发展比较成熟,并已经可以小范围临床应用,而有些还停留在发展的初始阶段(实验室研究阶段)。讨论了最近发展起来的几种基于SERS技术定量分析的方法, 选择不同SERS活性基底和技术(如生物分子在电极上,胶体纳米粒子,周期性图案结构和基于针尖拉曼技术)对蛋白质进行直接研究。此外,根据SERS指纹信息的变化可以用来研究蛋白质-蛋白质,蛋白质-配体间的相互作用。基于SERS技术对生物分子进行定性和/或定量分析方面显示出了相当大的优势。     

Rapid detection of a foreign protein in milk using IMS–SERS

A method for rapid detection of foreign protein contamination in complex food matrices is critically needed. Here we present a novel method that combines immunomagnetic separation (IMS) and surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) to detect ovalbumin (OVA), an egg white protein, added into whole milk. IMS was used to specifically capture the OVA out of the milk. Then SERS was applied to analyze the IMS eluate using silver dendrites as the substrate. Two SERS sample preparation methods, namely solution based and substrate based, were used to prepare the IMS eluate for SERS analysis. Results show both methods were able to detect 1 µg OVA in 1 ml milk (1 part per million). Based on the results of principal component analysis and partial least‐squares analysis, solution SERS was more capable of quantitative analysis, while substrate SERS was more sensitive for qualitative analysis. The total analytical time for IMS–SERS was less than 20 min, which satisfied the requirement of rapid detection in a milk processing facility. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integration of correlative Raman microscopy in a dualbeam FIB SEM

We present an integrated confocal Raman microscope in a focused ion beam scanning electron microscope (FIB SEM). The integrated system enables correlative Raman and electron microscopic analysis combined with focused ion beam sample modification on the same sample location. This provides new opportunities, for example the combination of nanometer resolution with Raman advances the analysis of sub‐diffraction‐sized particles. Further direct Raman analysis of FIB engineered samples enables in situ investigation of sample changes. The Raman microscope is an add‐on module to the electron microscope. The optical objective is brought into the sample chamber, and the laser source, and spectrometer are placed in a module attached onto and outside the chamber. We demonstrate the integrated Raman FIB SEM function with several experiments. First, correlative Raman and electron microscopy is used for the investigation of (sub‐)micrometer‐sized crystals. Different crystals are identified with Raman, and in combination with SEM the spectral information is combined with structurally visible polymorphs and particle sizes. Analysis of sample changes made with the ion beam is performed on (1) structures milled in a silicon substrate and (2) after milling with the FIB on an organic polymer. Experiments demonstrate the new capabilities of an integrated correlative Raman–FIB–SEM. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.