Abstract
Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is considered
a highly promising technology for different analytical
purposes. The applications of SERS are still quite
limited due its relatively poor quantitative
repeatability and the fact that SERS is very sensitive to
oxidation, which is a challenge especially with silver
based SERS substrates. Here, the link between these
phenomena is investigated by exposing silver SERS
substrates to ambient laboratory air. We show that SERS
intensity decreases exponentially after the exposure,
which consequently leads to an increasing standard
deviation (s) in intensity. Within a five-hour
measurement window, the SERS intensity already drops by
60%, while s triples from 7% to 21%. The SERS results are
supplemented by elemental analysis, which shows that
oxidation and atmospheric carbon contamination coincide
with the rapid SERS intensity decrease. The results
emphasize how sensitive SERS is towards atmospheric
contamination and how it can also reduce the measurement
repeatability-even if the substrates are exposed to air
just for a very short period of time.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 37192 |
Journal | Scientific Reports |
Volume | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2016 |
MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Keywords
- nanoparticles
- optical sensors