Boosting the Quantitative Inorganic Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Sensing to the Limit: The Case of Nitrite/Nitrate Detection

Abstract

A high-performance ionic-sensing platform has been developed by an interdisciplinary approach, combining the classical colorimetric Griess reaction and new concepts of nanotechnology, such as plasmonic coupling of nanoparticles and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy. This approach exploits the advantages of combined SERS/surface-enhanced resonant Raman Scattering (SERRS) by inducing the formation of homogeneous hot spots and a colored complex in resonance with the laser line, to yield detection limits for nitrite down to the subpicomolar level. The performance of this new method was compared with the classical Griess reaction and ionic chromatography showing detection limits about 6 and 3 orders of magnitude lower, respectively.

Highly sensitive and selective detection of nitrite ions using Fe3O4@SiO2/Au magnetic nanoparticles by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

“…Two strong peaks at the wavelength of 1593 and 1080 cm -1 were observed, indicating the strong binding of 4-ATP to the Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 /Au MNPs (Figure 4c). Upon addition of nitrite ions, three typical peaks at the wavelength of 1436, 1391, and 1140 cm -1 immediately appeared (Figure 4d), which were similar with the previously reported spectra of azo bonds (Correa-Duarte et al 2015;Kang et al 2013;Sun and Xu 2012). It is well known that the azo bonds are formed in acidic media.…”

Self-assembly of gold supraparticles with crystallographically aligned and strongly coupled nanoparticle building blocks for SERS and photothermal therapy

“…From these images and spectra, it is evident that the supraparticles generate SERS signals that are several orders of magnitude higher than the individual nanoparticle building blocks. This large increase in the SERS signal agrees well with the formation of plasmonic hot spots, 2 and therefore demonstrates that the nanoparticle building bocks are in close contact in the supraparticles. Together, the results shown in Fig.…”

“… 1 Assembling these nanoparticles into compact supraparticles with well-defined 3D structures allows for engineering their plasmon resonances and also intensifies the electromagnetic field at nanoparticle interstices. 2 This phenomenon makes gold supraparticles extremely promising materials for nanomedicine applications such as photothermal therapy and in vivo sensing. For example, in photothermal therapy closely packed nanoparticles require less energy to generate plasmonic heat, which minimizes side effects originating from the incident light.…”

Facile and Sensitive Detection of Carbofnran Carbamate Pesticide in Rice and Soybean Using Coupling Reaction-based Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering

“…Due to a specificity of diazonium ions to aniline/phenolic groups, this reaction was combined with SERS to achieve highly sensitive detection with high specificity. The azo coupling reaction-based SERS was employed to detect nitrite, 23,24 toxic anilines and phenols, 25 thrombin 26 and phenolic estrogen 27 in previous studies. In this research, the selective and sensitive detection method of carbofuran in rice and soybean was designed based on the coupling reaction of the aryl diazonium ion combined with the SERS technique.…”