Issue 39, 2015

Combined near-infrared excited SEHRS and SERS spectra of pH sensors using silver nanostructures

Abstract

Surface-enhanced hyper-Raman scattering (SEHRS) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) of para-mercaptobenzoic acid (pMBA) were studied with an excitation wavelength of 1064 nm, using different silver nanostructures as substrates for both SEHRS and SERS. The spectra acquired for different pH values between pH 2 and pH 12 were compared with SERS data obtained from the identical samples at 532 nm excitation. Comparison of the ratios of the enhancement factors from SEHRS and SERS experiments with those from calculations using plasmonic absorbance spectra suggests that the difference between total surface-enhancement factors of SEHRS and SERS for pMBA is mainly explained by a difference between the electromagnetic contributions for linear and non-linear SERS. SERS and SEHRS spectra obtained at near-infrared (NIR) excitation indicate an overall reduction of enhancement by a factor of 2–3 at very low and very high pH, compared to neutral pH. Our data provide evidence that different molecular vibrations and/or different adsorption species are probed in SERS and SEHRS, and that SEHRS is very sensitive to slight changes in the pMBA–nanostructure interactions. We conclude that the combination of SEHRS and SERS using NIR excitation is more powerful for micro-environmental pH sensing than one-photon spectra excited in the visible range alone.

Graphical abstract: Combined near-infrared excited SEHRS and SERS spectra of pH sensors using silver nanostructures

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Jul 2015
Accepted
24 Aug 2015
First published
26 Aug 2015
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2015,17, 26093-26100

Author version available

Combined near-infrared excited SEHRS and SERS spectra of pH sensors using silver nanostructures

M. Gühlke, Z. Heiner and J. Kneipp, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2015, 17, 26093 DOI: 10.1039/C5CP03844H

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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