Ordered zirconium dioxide nanotubes covered with an evaporated gold layer as reversible, chemically inert and very efficient substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) measurement

Jan Krajczewski; Sylwia Turczyniak-Surdacka; Małgorzata Dziubałtowska; Robert Ambroziak; Andrzej Kudelski

doi:10.1016/j.saa.2022.121183

Ordered zirconium dioxide nanotubes covered with an evaporated gold layer as reversible, chemically inert and very efficient substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) measurement

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2022 Jul 5:275:121183. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2022.121183. Epub 2022 Mar 23.

Authors

Jan Krajczewski¹, Sylwia Turczyniak-Surdacka², Małgorzata Dziubałtowska³, Robert Ambroziak⁴, Andrzej Kudelski³

Affiliations

¹ University of Warsaw, Faculty of Chemistry, 1 Pasteur St., 02-093 Warsaw, Poland. Electronic address: jkrajczewski@chem.uw.edu.pl.
² University of Warsaw, Faculty of Chemistry, 1 Pasteur St., 02-093 Warsaw, Poland; Biological and Chemical Research Centre, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, 101 Żwirki i Wigury Street, 20-089 Warsaw, Poland.
³ University of Warsaw, Faculty of Chemistry, 1 Pasteur St., 02-093 Warsaw, Poland.
⁴ Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kasprzaka 44/52, 01-224 Warsaw, Poland.

PMID: 35344854
DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2022.121183

Abstract

The deposition of a layer of plasmonic metal on a surface of highly ordered nanostructured oxide is one of the important methods of preparation of substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) measurements. In this contribution we describe formation of SERS substrates by the deposition of a gold layer on ordered ZrO₂ nanotubes. The influence of various experimental parameters on the structure of formed composites and the achievable SERS enhancement factor has been analysed. Like commonly used SERS substrates formed by the deposition of plasmonic metals on TiO₂ nanotubes, gold-covered ZrO₂ nanotubes also could be used as reversible SERS platform after water rinsing: there is no any significant decrease in the SERS activity of the substrate even after 20 radiation-induced cleaning cycles. Moreover, SERS substrates formed on ZrO₂ nanotubes are significantly more stable in strongly acidic media than the previously developed SERS substrates based on ordered TiO₂ nanotubes.

Keywords: Au@ZrO(2) NTs; SERS; ZrO(2) NTs; reversible SERS platform.