Ultralow-background SERS substrates for reliable identification of organic pollutants and degradation intermediates

Longfei Zhang; Rongfang Zhao; Yanzhou Wu; Zhiyang Zhang; Yan Chen; Meichun Liu; Na Zhou; Yunqing Wang; Xiuli Fu; Xuming Zhuang; Jianping Wang; Lingxin Chen

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132508

Ultralow-background SERS substrates for reliable identification of organic pollutants and degradation intermediates

J Hazard Mater. 2023 Oct 15:460:132508. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132508. Epub 2023 Sep 7.

Authors

Longfei Zhang¹, Rongfang Zhao², Yanzhou Wu², Zhiyang Zhang³, Yan Chen⁴, Meichun Liu⁴, Na Zhou², Yunqing Wang², Xiuli Fu⁵, Xuming Zhuang⁵, Jianping Wang⁶, Lingxin Chen⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, PR China; CAS Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Research Center for Coastal Environmental Engineering and Technology, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai 264003, PR China.
² CAS Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Research Center for Coastal Environmental Engineering and Technology, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai 264003, PR China.
³ CAS Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Research Center for Coastal Environmental Engineering and Technology, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai 264003, PR China; Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 266071, Qingdao 264003, PR China. Electronic address: zyzhang@yic.ac.cn.
⁴ CAS Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Research Center for Coastal Environmental Engineering and Technology, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai 264003, PR China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China.
⁵ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, PR China.
⁶ Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Molecular Reaction Dynamics Laboratory, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, PR China.
⁷ CAS Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Research Center for Coastal Environmental Engineering and Technology, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai 264003, PR China; School of Pharmacy, Binzhou Medical University, Yantai 264003, PR China; Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 266071, Qingdao 264003, PR China. Electronic address: lxchen@yic.ac.cn.

PMID: 37690198
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132508

Abstract

Chemical methods for preparing SERS substrates have the advantages of low cost and high productivity, but the strong background signals from the substrate greatly limit their applications in characterization and identification of organic compounds. Herein, we developed a one-step synthesis method to prepare silver nanoparticle substrates with ultralow SERS background using anionic ligands as stabilizing agents and applied the SERS substrate for the reliable and reproducible identification of typical organic pollutants and corresponding degradation intermediates. The synthesis method shows excellent universality to different reducing agents cooperating with different anionic ligands (Cl^-, Br^-, I^-, SCN^-). As model applications, the machine learning algorithm can realize the precise prediction of six organophosphorus pesticides and eight sulfonamide antibiotics with 100% accuracy based on SERS training data. More importantly, the ultralow-background SERS substrate enables one to detect and identify the time-dependent degradation intermediates of organophosphorus pesticides by combining them with density functional theory (DFT) calculations. All the results indicate that the ultralow-background SERS substrate will greatly push the development of SERS characterization applications.

Keywords: Degradation intermediates; Organic pollutants; Silver nanoparticles; Surface plasmon resonance; Surface-enhanced Raman scattering.