title: Rapid detection of polychlorinated biphenyls at trace levels in real environmental samples by surface-enhanced Raman scattering.
abstract: Detection of trace levels of persistent pollutants in the environment is difficult but significant. Organic pollutant homologues, due to their similar physical and chemical properties, are even more difficult to distinguish, especially in trace amounts. We report here a simple method to detect polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in soil and distilled spirit samples by the surface-enhanced Raman scattering technique using Ag nanorod arrays as substrates. By this method, polychlorinated biphenyls can be detected to a concentration of 5 μg/g in dry soil samples within 1 minute. Furthermore, based on simulation and understanding of the Raman characteristics of PCBs, we recognized homologues of tetrachlorobiphenyl by using the surface-enhance Raman scattering method even in trace amounts in acetone solutions, and their characteristic Raman peaks still can be distinguished at a concentration of 10(-6) mol/L. This study provides a fast, simple and sensitive method for the detection and recognition of organic pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Materials Laboratory, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, 30 Shuangqing Road, Beijing 100084, China. qinzhou@tsinghua.edu.cn
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Xian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Zhengcao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zhengjun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000096:Acetone / Q000737:chemistry; D000434:Alcoholic Beverages / Q000032:analysis; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D043942:Nanotubes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D012989:Soil Pollutants; C118525:2,2',6,6'-tetrachlorobiphenyl; D000096:Acetone; C068319:2,2',3,3'-tetrachlorobiphenyl; D012834:Silver; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls; C078132:2,3,5,6-tetrachlorobiphenyl; C029860:3,5,3',5'-tetrachlorobiphenyl