Evaluation of Colloids and Activation Agents for Determination of Melamine Using UV-SERS

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 2SO 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

Spectroscopic study of tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide Pt-C14TAB nanoparticles: Structure and Stability

The vibrational spectra of platinum nanoparticles (12 nm) capped with tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide, C{sub 14}TAB, were investigated by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. We have shown that the thermal decay of Pt-C{sub 14}TAB nanoparticles in N{sub 2}, H{sub 2} and O{sub 2} atmospheres leads to the release of hydrocarbon chain of surfactant and the formation of strongly bonded layer of ammonium cations on the platinum surface. The platinum atoms accessible to CO chemisorptions were not reducible by hydrogen in the temperature ranging from 30 C to 200 C. A FTIR spectrum of C{sub 14}TAB adsorbed on Pt nanoparticles dramatically perturbed as compared with pure C{sub 14}TAB. New intense and broad bands centered at 1450 cm{sup -1} and 760 cm{sup -1} are making their appearance in Pt-C{sub 14}TAB. It may be speculated, that new bands are result of coupling between conducting electrons of Pt and molecular vibrations of adsorbed C{sub 14}TAB and as a consequence specific vibrational modes of ammonium cation transformed into electron-vibrational modes