Silver nanoparticles on copper foam as substrate for full range mid-infrared surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy in transmission configuration

Publication date: Available online 10 September 2019Source: Microchemical JournalAuthor(s): Qiling Zhang, Wen Liu, Zhengjun Gong, Wenjun Wang, Dongmei Wang, Xinchen Jiang, Lu Zheng, Shiwei Yang, Meikun FanAbstractThe availability of sensitive, reproducible, and broad spectral window range surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (SEIRAS) substrate is essential to the wide application of SEIRAS technique. Here, a facile method was proposed for the preparation of full mid-infrared range transmission surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (T-SEIRAS) substrate, where silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) was synthesized in situ by immersing copper foam into the silver nitrate solution with the help of hydroxylamine hydrochloride. The T-SEIRAS substrate was characterized with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). It was found that the spectral window of the substrate was from 600 to 4000 cm−1. The apparent signal enhancement factor of the T-SEIRAS substrate was found to be about 35 times with the utilization of 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (MUA) as probe molecule. Finally, the T-SEIRAS spectrum of E. coli was successfully obtained. It is expected that this type of T-SEIRAS substrate could be used in inexpensive IR instruments for field sensing applications.
Source: Microchemical Journal - Category: Chemistry Source Type: research