Removal of Carbonaceous Contamination from SERS−Active Silver by Self-Assembly of Decanethiol
- 3 September 1998
- journal article
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in Analytical Chemistry
- Vol. 70 (19) , 4218-4221
- https://doi.org/10.1021/ac980114h
Abstract
The presence of carbonaceous contamination on common surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) surfaces has been a primary limitation to the analytical utility of SERS; background contamination significantly affects reproducibility and often determines the limit of detection. Due to the strong interaction between thiols and Ag or Au, self-assembly of alkanethiols onto these metals results in the displacement of "adventitious material" from the metal. The cleaning procedure presented here utilized self-assembly of decanethiol on an electrochemically roughened Ag foil for removal of surface contamination. The self-assembled layer was subsequently removed by rapid oxidation with ozone, followed by rinsing in methanol. The clean Ag surface exhibited a tremendously improved background and a 3-fold increase in the enhancement factor for a probe molecule.Keywords
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