Open AccessTannin-furanic foams used as biomaterial substrates for SERS sensing in possible wastewater filter applications
Author(s) -
Gebhard Sabathi,
Andreas Reyer,
Nicola Cefarin,
Thomas Sepperer,
Jonas Eckardt,
Jonas Neubauer,
Fedja J. Wendisch,
Francesco D’Amico,
Lisa Vaccari,
Gianluca Tondi,
Maurizio Musso
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
materials research express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2053-1591
DOI - 10.1088/2053-1591/ac3586
Subject(s) - materials science , tannin , raman spectroscopy , substrate (aquarium) , analyte , nanotechnology , filter paper , chemical engineering , porosity , surface enhanced raman spectroscopy , malachite green , filtration (mathematics) , chromatography , organic chemistry , chemistry , composite material , raman scattering , adsorption , optics , physics , oceanography , food science , engineering , statistics , mathematics , geology
Simple substrates for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), producible in a cost-efficient way, are of growing interest both for scientific and for environmental applications. In this study, we demonstrate the use of three types of bio-based tannin-furanic rigid foams as precursor materials for SERS substrates. Coated with a silver layer, these substrates allowed the detection of several well-known analytes in the mM regime by Raman spectroscopy. Specific optimization of the standard tannin-furanic foam morphology by tuning the chemical synthesis led to a smaller and more homogeneously distributed pore structure, supplying more active hot spot areas. Thus, we obtained a significant increase and a lower relative standard deviation (RSD) of the SERS signal recorded over the mapped SERS substrate area, for several analytes, in particular for Malachite Green dye. This work represents a feasibility study opening several potential applications of this biopolymers in fields such as the detection of water pollutants, virtually combining filtration and SERS capabilities driven by a controlled porosity.