Open AccessEvaluation of Colloids and Activation Agents for Determination of Melamine Using UV-SERS
Author(s) -
Evelyn Kämmer,
Thomas Dörfer,
Andrea Csàki,
Wilm Schumacher,
Paulo Augusto da Costa Filho,
N. Tarcea,
Wolfgang Fritzsche,
Petra Rösch,
Michael Schmitt,
Jürgen Popp
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of physical chemistry. c./journal of physical chemistry. c
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.401
H-Index - 289
eISSN - 1932-7455
pISSN - 1932-7447
DOI - 10.1021/jp211863y
Subject(s) - melamine , nanoparticle , nanomaterials , nanotechnology , molecule , metal , chemistry , colloid , materials science , organic chemistry
UV-SERS measurements offer a great potential for environmental or food (detection of food contaminats) analytics. Here, the UV-SERS enhancement potential of various kinds of metal colloids, such as Pd, Pt, Au, Ag, Au-Ag core-shell, and Ag-Au core-shell with different shapes and sizes, were studied using melamine as a test molecule. The influence of different activation (KF, KCl, KBr, K(2)SO(4)) agents onto the SERS activity of the nanomaterials was investigated, showing that the combination of a particular nanoparticle with a special activation agent is extremely crucial for the observed SERS enhancement. In particular, the size dependence of spherical nanoparticles of one particular metal on the activator has been exploited. By doing so, it could be shown that the SERS enhancement increases or decreases for increasing or decreasing size of a nanoparticle, respectively. Overall, the presented results demonstrate the necessity to adjust the nanoparticle size and the activation agent for different experiments in order to achieve the best possible UV-SERS results.