Environmental chemistry

Oceanography

Analytical Chemistry (journal)

Detection limit

Optics

Physics

Geology

Raman scattering

Nanotechnology

Organic chemistry

Chemistry

Materials science

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

In situ

Rhodamine 6G

Particle (ecology)

Molecule

Raman spectroscopy

Chromatography

Pollutant

Microfluidics

Analytical Chemistry

Unstable detection environment is one of the biggest interferences for in situ surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) using in real-time monitoring of toxic pollutants, leading to unreliable results. To address this problem, we have designed and prepared a cavity-based particle-in-quasicavity (PIQC) architecture composed of hierarchical ZnO/Ag nanosheets and nanoprotrusions for improving the in situ SERS performance under a liquid environment. Benefitting from the special cascaded optical field mode, the PIQC ZnO/Ag exhibits excellent in situ SERS detectability, with 10–18 M of limit of detection for rhodamine 6G and 12.8% of signal relative standard deviation value. Furthermore, by means of a microfluidic chip, this PIQC structure is proved to have the quantitative analysis feasibility and realizes real-time monitoring of the 3,3′,4,4′-tetrachlorobiphenyl, a representative global environmental hazard, under the flowing environment. The strategy in this paper provides a brand new idea to promote the application of in situ SERS in contaminant monitoring and is also instructive for light control in other optical fields.

Hierarchical Particle-In-Quasicavity Architecture for Ultratrace <i>In Situ</i> Raman Sensing and Its Application in Real-Time Monitoring of Toxic Pollutants

Hierarchical Particle-In-Quasicavity Architecture for Ultratrace In Situ Raman Sensing and Its Application in Real-Time Monitoring of Toxic Pollutants