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SERS performance of cubic-shaped gold nanoparticles for environmental monitoring

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Abstract

A subtle change in the geometry of nanoparticles affects the local electromagnetic field distribution and intensity of the analytes under optical excitation, which leads to distinguished enhancement effects on Raman signals. We report covalently modified gold–aryl nanocubes (AuNCs) for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). We performed transmission electron microscopy studies to investigate the morphology of AuNCs and UV–visible and Raman spectroscopy studies to understand their optical properties. Dynamic light scattering measurements, ζ-potential analyses, and contact angle measurements were performed to understand particle size distribution, surface charge, and wettability of the substrate. We obtained a high SERS enhancement (108) for AuNCs using 10−6 M rhodamine 6G (R6G, organic dye pollutant) as an analyte. AuNCs interact with the incoming electromagnetic wave, and due to the presence of multiple sharp corners (“hot spots”), there is a large enhancement of the electromagnetic field allowing the detection of 10−11 M R6G. The relative standard deviations were obtained within 5.8% for 10−6 M R6G, indicating excellent uniformity. Moreover, a wide linear range of 10−3–10−6 M was obtained for the detection of 4-nitrophenol (4-NPh, a high-priority toxic pollutant). These results indicate that highly SERS-active AuNCs could be successfully used for monitoring environmental contamination.

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Funding

CH acknowledges the support of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (2021R1A4A1032746 and 2021R1A2C1093183). AAM acknowledges the University of Sharjah support of the competitive grants 160-2142-029-P and 150-2142-017-P.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Sharjah, 27272, Sharjah, UAE

    Javad B. M. Parambath & Ahmed A. Mohamed

  2. Center for Advanced Materials Research, Research Institute of Sciences and Engineering, University of Sharjah, 27272, Sharjah, UAE

    Javad B. M. Parambath & Ahmed A. Mohamed

  3. Program in Environmental and Polymer Engineering, Graduate School of INHA University, Incheon, 22212, Korea

    Gwangmin Kim & Changseok Han

  4. Department of Environmental Engineering, INHA University, Incheon, 22212, Korea

    Changseok Han

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  1. Javad B. M. Parambath
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  4. Ahmed A. Mohamed
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JB and GK wrote the first draft of the manuscript. CH and AAM edited the manuscript. AAM supervised the laboratory work.

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Correspondence to Ahmed A. Mohamed.

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Parambath, J.B.M., Kim, G., Han, C. et al. SERS performance of cubic-shaped gold nanoparticles for environmental monitoring. Res Chem Intermed 49, 1259–1271 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11164-022-04913-4

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