Issue 36, 2021

Fabrication of high quality electrochemical SERS (EC-SERS) substrates using physical vapour deposition

Abstract

Screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) are an efficient and inexpensive substrate for electrochemical surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (EC-SERS) studies. Traditionally, the working electrode of the SPE is modified with either a colloidal paste of metal nanoparticles or an electrodeposited metallic film. These methods can be time-consuming and often produce non-uniform nanostructured films. Physical vapour deposition (PVD) is presented in this work as an efficient and effective alternative method for the production of SERS-active SPEs. SPEs coated with silver thin films via PVD show consistent and strong EC-SERS enhancement for the detection of two probe molecules, 4-aminothiophenol (p-ATP) and 5-(pyridine-4-yl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-thiol (PYOT). The EC-SERS signal intensity for p-ATP and PYOT had coefficients of variation of 8.2% and 5.5%, respectively. More generally, these substrates show promise for reliable enhancement of molecules spanning diverse analytical applications.

Graphical abstract: Fabrication of high quality electrochemical SERS (EC-SERS) substrates using physical vapour deposition

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
31 May 2021
Accepted
14 Jul 2021
First published
14 Jul 2021

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2021,23, 20065-20072

Fabrication of high quality electrochemical SERS (EC-SERS) substrates using physical vapour deposition

C. G. Farling, M. C. Stackaruk, C. C. Pye and C. L. Brosseau, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2021, 23, 20065 DOI: 10.1039/D1CP02416G

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