title: Ordered gold nanoparticle arrays as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrates for label-free detection of nitroexplosives.
abstract: Nitroexplosives, such as 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) which is a leading example of nitroaromatic explosives, are causing wide concern. Motivated by the urgent demand for trace analysis of explosives, novel surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrates based upon highly ordered Au nanoparticles have been fabricated by a simple droplet evaporation method. It is noteworthy that an ethylhexadecyldimethyl ammonium bromide bilayer surrounding each individual nanoparticle not only is responsible for these periodic gap structures, but also tends to promote the adsorption of TNT on the composite NPs, thus resulting in a considerable increase of Raman signal. These desirable features endow the resulting SERS substrates with excellent enhancement ability and allow for a label-free detection of common plastic explosive materials even with a concentration as low as 10(-9)M.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun Jilin 130022, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaojuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Hongxing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Lehui
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D053834:Explosive Agents / Q000032:analysis*; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013499:Surface Properties; D014303:Trinitrotoluene / Q000032:analysis*; D014835:Volatilization
chemical_list: D053834:Explosive Agents; D014303:Trinitrotoluene; D006046:Gold