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Cystine-assisted accumulation of gold nanoparticles on ZnO to construct a sensitive surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrate

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Abstract

Recently, various semiconductor/metal composites have been developed to fabricate surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrates. However, low metal loading on semiconductors is still a challenge. In this study, cystine was introduced to increase the accumulation of gold nanoparticles on zinc oxide, owing to the biomineralization property of cystine. Morphological analysis revealed that the obtained ZnO/Au/cystine composite not only had a higher metal loading but also formed a porous structure, which is beneficial for Raman performance. Compared with ZnO/Au, the ZnO/Au/cystine substrate displayed a 40-fold enhancement in the Raman signal and a lower limit of detection (10−11 mol·L−1) in the detection of rhodamine 6G. Moreover, the substrate has favorable homogeneity and stability. Finally, ZnO/Au/cystine displayed excellent performance toward crystal violet and methylene blue in a test based on river water samples. This study provided a promising method to fabricate sensitive semiconductor/noble metal-based surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrates for Raman detection.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21621004 and 22178260), the Tianjin Development Program for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (2018), and the Cooperative Program of Technical Center of Gongbei Customs District of China (Grant No. 2020GKF-0281).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350, China

    Qi Qu, Mengfan Wang, Wei Qi & Zhimin He

  2. School of Life Sciences, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Mengfan Wang

  3. Co-Innovation Centre of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Tianjin, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Wei Qi

  4. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Membrane Science and Desalination Technology, Tianjin, 300350, China

    Mengfan Wang & Wei Qi

  5. Technical Centre of Gongbei Customs District of China, Zhuhai, 519000, China

    Chuan Zeng & Jing Huang

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  1. Qi Qu
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  2. Chuan Zeng
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  3. Jing Huang
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  4. Mengfan Wang
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  5. Wei Qi
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Correspondence to Mengfan Wang.

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Cystine-assisted accumulation of gold nanoparticles on ZnO to construct a sensitive surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrate

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Qu, Q., Zeng, C., Huang, J. et al. Cystine-assisted accumulation of gold nanoparticles on ZnO to construct a sensitive surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrate. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng. 17, 15–23 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-022-2177-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-022-2177-8

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