Study on Detection of Carbaryl Pesticides by Using Surface-Enhance Raman Spectroscopy

In this research, the Ag nanorod structure was used as surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) chip which provides a sensitive detection signal for trace analysis of carbaryl pesticide. Carbaryl in solid form was measured by using the standard Raman spectroscopy to investigate the spectrum. Carbaryl at various concentrations was prepared in acetonitrile and dropped on the SERS chip for measuring Raman spectrum by a portable Raman spectrometer. The measurement condition including laser power and exposure time were studied to test the performance of SERS chip for carbaryl detection. From the results, the SERS chip useful for enhancing the Raman scattering signal which was increased depending on the laser power and exposure time. Carbaryl can be detected on SERS chip couple with the portable Raman spectrometer with the limit of detection of 10-5 M.

Femtosecond laser fabrication of silver nanostructures on glass for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy

We report on an optimized fabrication protocol for obtaining silver nanoparticles on fused silica substrates via laser photoreduction of a silver salt solution. We find that multiple scans of the laser over the surface leads to a more uniform coverage of densely packed silver nanoparticles of approximately 50 nm diameter on the fused silica surface. Our substrates yield Raman enhancement factors of the order of 1011 of the signal detected from crystal violet. We use a theoretical model based on scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of our substrates to explain our experimental results. We also demonstrate how our technique can be extended to embedding silver nanoparticles in buried microfluidic channels in glass. The in situ laser inscription of silver nanoparticles on a laser machined, sub-surface, microfluidic channel wall within bulk glass paves the way for developing 3D, monolithic, fused silica surface enhance Raman spectroscopy (SERS) microfluidic sensing devices.