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Jun 8, 2017 - Peter V. Shanta. † and Quan Cheng*,†,‡. †. Environmental Toxicology and. ‡. Department of Chemistry University of California, ...
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Graphene Oxide Nanoprisms for Sensitive Detection of Environmentally Important Aromatic Compounds with SERS Peter V. Shanta† and Quan Cheng*,†,‡ †

Environmental Toxicology and ‡Department of Chemistry University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United States S Supporting Information *

ABSTRACT: Recent advances in graphene-based sensors have shown that heavily oxidized (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) are attractive materials for environmental sensing due to their unique chemical and physical properties. We describe here the fabrication of nanostructured GO assemblies with Ag nanoprisms for improved detection with surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Specifically, 100-μm-sized, periodic-nanoprism-array domains were fabricated on top of the GO layers by GO-assisted lithography (GOAL). The atomically thin GO underlayers are shown to attract cyclic aromatic molecules to the surface, likely via π−π stacking interactions. The close proximity of the analyte to GO and nanoprism (NP) tips effectively suppresses fluorescent background and affords a plausible tertiary enhancement of photon emissions via an electron charge transfer (CT) process. The adsorption of analyte to rGO-NP leads to the appearance and/or shift of several Raman bands, which provided a means to gain molecular insights into the grapheneenhanced scattering process. The analytical merits were characterized with model compound Rhodamine 6G, where the detection limit could reach subnanomolar concentrations. The nanoprism GO substrates also prove effective for SERS multiplex measurement of several legacy aromatic pollutants. Three tetrachlorobiphenyl isomers could be identified from a mixture using their autonomous nonoverlapping molecular fingerprints, and the substrate offers remarkable trace detection of 2,2′,3,3′-tetrachlorobiphenyl (PCB-77). KEYWORDS: surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), polychlorinated biphenyls, graphene oxide, nanoprisms, graphene-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (GERS)

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ensitive detection with SERS1 has become a mainstream analytical method where recent developments have offered ultrahigh detection sensitivity and convenience with portable Raman instruments2 for clinical and environmental detection.3 Wider acceptance of SERS methods for environmental monitoring has slowly taken effect, largely due to the improvements in method and substrate development. SERS based detection is very diverse: some focus on optimization of nanoparticle size and geometric shape to produce respectable electromagnetic (EM) enhancements, while others place emphasis on highly sensitive nanoparticle composites. Ultimately, the greatest enhancements are achieved at nanoparticle tip edges or when nanoparticles are oriented to form hot spots.4 Strong evidence has shown that nanoparticle edges can amplify Raman shifts by several orders of magnitude compared to conventional Raman scattering.5 Both colloidal and surface based SERS sensors have shown enhancement factors (EFs) on the order of ∼108, which are well within the limits for single molecule detection.6−8 However, fabrication of these high performing, monodispersed colloidal suspensions with consistent shapes and sizes can be painstakingly difficult, and there are additional disadvantages of carrying out SERS using colloidal suspensions, which include aqueous instability and a large nonhomogeneous range due to nonuniform molecular density and dynamics © XXXX American Chemical Society

within a colloidal suspension. Colloidal lithography, on the other hand, is a simple technique for creating nanoparticle arrays9 on substrates with strong EM enhancements.10 These arrays are formed from thousands of neatly aligned nanoprism structures, with which single molecule detection of resonant Raman molecules has been confirmed.7 FDTD simulations for nanoprism arrays confirm strong EM energy at nanoparticle tips.11 These regions of concentrated energy, however, lack molecular selectivity, and therefore use of the self-assembled monolayer (SAM) is a common strategy for collecting molecules of interest. For example, Van Duyne and coworkers12 used a bimolecular glucose specific monolayer on a metal film over nanosphere surface for subcutaneous real-time monitoring of glucose at 18 MΩ cm−1) was obtained from Barnstead E-Pure water purification system. Carboxylated polystyrene nanospheres were purchased from Phosphorex Inc. PCB powders, PCB-47 (2,2′,4,4′tetrachlorobiphenyl), PCB-52 (2,2′,5,5′-tetrachlorobiphenyl), and PCB- 77 (2,2′,3,3′-tetrachlorobiphenyl) were purchased from AccuStandard Inc. (New Haven, CT, USA). Fabrication of rGO-NP Modified Substrates. Graphene oxide (GO) was prepared using a modified Hummers method,27,28 and silanized glass slides were made with APTES (details provided in Supporting Information). GO was electrostatically adsorbed onto the silanized glass using the following procedure. First, the silanized glass substrates were immersed in ∼20 μg/mL GO solution for 30 min. GO B

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Figure 1. AFM images reveal surface morphologies at individual GO-NP hybrid fabrication steps. (A) GO electrostatically adsorbed onto SiO2 substrate. (C) Hexagonal ordered nanosphere mask array. (E) NP morphology after Ag vapor deposition and removal of nanosphere mask. Graphs (B), (D), and (F) are the respective height profiles for the lines in (A), (C), and (E).

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decorated slides were washed 3 times with water, dried under pressurized air, and baked at 120 °C for 10 min. The immobilized GO was then reduced by 90 °C hydrazine vapor for 12 h. After reduction a 2 μL drop of 500 nm nanospheres (200 or 500 nm) diluted with EtOH (1:1) was deposited and allowed to dry in air on the rGO coated substrates, resulting in the formation of a crystal monolayer of polystyrene beads. An E-Beam evaporator equipped with a rotating disc holder was then used to deposit 50 nm of Ag onto the surface at an angle normal to the surface. Finally, ultrasonication in EtOH released the nanospheres from the surface revealing nanoprisms on a silanized reduced GO substrate (Scheme 1). Preparation of Solutions for Analysis on Fabricated Substrates. A R6G stock solution was prepared with ultrapure water and serially diluted as needed. Substrates were incubated for 48 h in 1 mL of sample using the incubation method or for 30 min with 10 μL of sample using the drop-cast method. The R6G samples were rinsed away with ultrapure water and dried under ambient conditions prior to analysis. PCB powders were dissolved in acetone to make stock solutions and diluted, as needed, using acetone. For PCB analysis substrates were either immersed or the PCB sample was drop-cast onto the substrate. Immersed samples were removed after a specified amount of time and dried in air, whereas drop-cast samples were simply allowed to dry prior to analysis. Instruments and Measurements. AFM measurements were conducted on Aist-NT instrument in tapping mode using 40 N force AFM tips supplied by Nanoandmore. For Raman spectra, a Horiba LabRam HR800 spectrometer was employed that was equipped with an Nd:YAG laser for excitation at 532 nm. All spectra were acquired over 30 s intervals using 60 mW of laser power through a 100 nm hole and a 100× objective. All Raman spectra shown herein are averaged from 5 spectra acquired from different areas of one sample. The working laser spot size on this conventional confocal Raman instrument was estimated to be about 1 μm. FTIR data were collected on Thermo Nicolet 6700 FTIR instrument. Absorbance spectra were measured with a Cary 50 spectrophotometer. Hydrophobicity tests (contact angle) were performed with a home-built device using a QImaging Retiga 1300 camera and QCapture software. E-beam evaporations were carried out in the UCR Cleanroom Facility where vacuum pressure was set to below 5 × 10−6 Torr.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Nanoprisms on GO Coated Substrates. Optical and plasmonic coupling effects become interesting when pristine graphene or reduced GO is within a noble metal-localized or -propagating plasmonic field,29 and this generally leads to enhanced signal enhancement when compared to plasmonic materials alone.30 Theoretical simulations and empirical enhancement factors suggest that biomaterial coupling enables robust tunable plasmonics,31 and enhances optical absorption.30 To fabricate a GO monolayer substrate we have synthesized colloidal solutions of GO platelets by using a modified Hummers method.32 The optimal GO solution was determined to be ∼0.02 mg/mL and the average sheet size must be of submicron size or smaller to prevent unfavorable agglomeration during immobilization onto the surface, as this was shown to reduce GERS-SERS signal intensity. Details of the optimization and characterization of the GO monolayer have been provided in the Supporting Information. Scheme 1 shows the procedure for generating an amine functionalized SAM (APTES) to facilitate monolayer adsorption of negatively charged GO sheets. AFM images show a smooth homogeneous monolayer of GO on SiO2, clearly indicating that sheet overlaps are sporadic and marginal (Figure 1A). For further validation of surface homogeneity, the profile in Figure 1B shows consistent vertical morphology with average individual sheet thickness at ∼1 nm, and overall variability in surface thickness of roughly 1−3 nm. Improving specific binding of an analyte to a substrate is important in SERS detection and reduced GO is known to facilitate π−π binding and provide a number of sites for π−π stacking with cyclic aromatic compounds. Thus, reduced GO can be used for adsorption of hydrophobic and/or cyclic aromatics (π−π-stacking), whereas soluble charged target molecules can be adsorbed (electrostatic) using GO or reduced GO covered substrates. Therefore, GO was reduced prior to nanoparticle deposition where both an ambient and a heated hydrazine environment were used to achieve a semi- and full C

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Figure 2. Nanoprism SERS spectra obtained from GO, ArGO, and rGO substrates indicates plasmon−phonon coupling between the two materials (A) and GERS effect of R6G immobilization onto various states of reduced GO (B) without nanoprisms present.

profile graph (Figure 1d). This reveals monolayer application of the mask, which comprises 500 nm polystyrene beads, and therefore had a much larger overall thickness relative to that of monolayer GO. The novel application of a thin GO underlayment did not interrupt the ordered hexagonal closepacking of spheres over large areas. Additionally, the forces contributing to packing were unaffected by the presence of GO because GO and SiO2 share physical and chemical properties, i.e., both have negatively charged oxygen containing functional groups. A comparison of AFM images obtained from traditional colloidal lithography substrates9,36 versus our GOAL substrates (Figure 1e) confirmed that addition of a GO monolayer had little effect on mask formation. As can be seen, large periodic arrays were achieved when GO was present, although there are regions with minor dislocations that ranged in size from ten to hundreds of microns. GERS Properties of the Nanoprism Substrate. The capability of the nanoprism substrate to be used in GERS analysis was determined using Rhodamine 6G (R6G) in order to understand possible GO-plasmon coupling. R6G was chosen because it favorably interacts with GO and metal NPs,40,41 carries a charge, and is aromatic. From AFM images, 500 nm polystyrene nanospheres make nanoprisms that had an average triangular bisect of 140 nm (n = 50) and a λmax = 630 nm (Figure S5). We also tested 200 nm nanospheres, as optimal complementary tuning of λmax with excitation wavelengths can enhance resonance of excited conducting electrons, which ultimately enhances Raman scattering. Characteristic Raman band assignments for R6G are given in Figure 2b and Table S2. R6G bound to GO, ArGO, and FrGO without nanoprisms has a significant GERS effect, and Figure 2b shows the spectra of 10−4 M R6G molecules incubated for 4 h on GO, ArGO, FrGO, and a control (SiO2). Strong background fluorescence from the control hindered peak assignment of R6G, but the presence of GO and reduced GO strongly encouraged peak autonomy and moiety identification. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer upon absorption to GO derivatives is ascribed to the reduction of the fluorescence background. GERS signal intensities taken from R6G′s 614 cm−1 vibrational band were compared and FrGO was found to have 1.6- and 3.2-fold stronger signal than ArGO and GO, respectively. Reduction led to a direct intensity increase for all of R6G′s peaks with no

reductive state, respectively, of surface-bound GO. AFM confirmed that reduction of GO had no effect on GO surface morphology. Contact angle (CA) measurements (Figure S3) were carried out and the results are summarized in Table S1 for GO, ambient reduced GO (ArGO), and furnace reduced GO (FrGO). The results indicated that surface wettability was a function of modulating reduction. GO modified glass slides (32.5°) had a lower CA than ArGO (45.7°), and reduction of GO in a heated hydrazine vapor environment (FrGO) significantly increased hydrophobicity (83.5°). This behavior is ascribed to condensation of aldehyde, epoxide, and ketone groups during reduction, which leads to fewer polar bonds, and fewer hydrogen-bonding sites. This variability in surface adhesive properties can be used to tailor substrates for improved adhesion of targets based on the analytes physicochemical properties. Figure 2a shows the Raman spectrum of GO, which has two distinct broad Raman peaks that are colloquially referred to as the D band and G band. The D band (∼1340 cm−1) is assigned to vibrations of a ring breathing mode resulting from internal and edge of sheet defects, and the G band (∼1600 cm−1) represents first-order scattering of sp2 defect free regions.33 Upon increasing the reductive state of GO (GO < ArGO < FrGO), the ratio between D and G peak intensities (ID/IG) monotonically increased (0.93 < 0.99 < 1.14), which is the product of sp2 domain restorations that are smaller in size but more frequent.34,35 The fabrication of nanoprisms on GO coated substrates was performed using colloidal lithography (Scheme 1).9 GO assisted lithography (GOAL) is a physical process that occurs when cooperative forces at an air−solvent front and hydrodynamic flux, along with GO-assisted evaporative capillary actions, can arrange nanospheres with P2 symmetry.36 It is wellknown that the strongest SERS enhancements occur when excitation wavelengths are marginally lower in energy than LSPR λmax37,38 and colloidal lithography is an appealing choice for its unparalleled tuning ability. For instance, an extinction maximum can be pushed to shorter wavelengths by simply using smaller masking nanospheres.38,39 AFM was used to characterize the nanoprism substrates and Figure 1 shows images obtained from a hexagonally packed 2-D-lithographic mask applied on top of GO (Figure 1c), and its complementary D

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Figure 3. SERS-GERS combination effects on various GO and NP constructs (A) and (B). In part (A) 200 nm nanospheres and (B) 500 nm nanospheres were used to fabricate different-sized NPs.

stacked sheets.22,26,44,45 Zhang et al.45 found similar results when they determined that Raman scattering from copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) in powder form led to a loss because CuPc particles in close proximity were simultaneously adsorbing scattered light. He et al.44 showed stacked GO sheets supported a conducting channel and electron mobility, which could lead to Raman signal degradation. They measured charge dispersion and found conductance perturbations occurring as a result of π−π interactions with catecholamines. Furthermore, it has been shown42,46 that multilayers of graphene can decrease a GERS signal due to the interference effect within a multilayer system. Contrary to the GERS increase in intensity after reduction, the reduction of GO in GERS-SERS analysis caused a slightly weaker R6G signal compared to GO-NP, IArGO‑NP/IGO‑NP = 0.81. This can be ascribed to several factors: a combined affinity of positively charged R6G with negatively charged GO and AgNP, which adds to the particularly diverse interactions that can occur between GO and an analyte of interest, and fewer electronegative oxygen groups contributing to charge transfer between GO-metal (heterojunction) and GO-R6G cation. Clearly, NP size, reduction of GO, the presence of NP, and GO surface density showed variable impact on the Raman signal. Although ArGO-NP surfaces are slightly less sensitive to the model compound (R6G) than GO-NP substrates, it appears to us that ambient reduced GO has some uniqueness in properties, particularly for detection of hydrophobic compounds. First, ArGO is promiscuous owing to its well-balanced ratio of π bonding and electrostatically attracting sites; therefore it is broadly suitable for a variety of molecules that have different types of intermolecular characteristics. For the model compound (R6G), when NPs are not present ArGO allows for a greater number of parallel adsorbing sites over GO which leads to enhancement via resonant electron donor− acceptor coupling between R6G′s C−C−C vibration modes and GO’s ground state.45 Reduction also forms an interfacial barrier with aqueous samples, again favoring π−π stacking and van der Waals attractive interactions with trace amounts of target pollutants, such as PCB, that are polycyclic and aromatic. GO, however, can be tailored to accommodate molecules having various phase separation types. It is important to

horizontal Raman peak shifts observed indicating no sign of increased GO doping with reduction and only physical interactions. Therefore, the increase in sensitivity upon GO reduction is likely due to the presence of more delocalized πbonds which served as collection sites for aromatic molecules. Furthermore, the peak at 614 cm−1 (C−C−C vibration) showed the strongest enhancement, which suggests coupling with GO’s delocalized π-bonds. Deposition of a nanoprism array, via GOAL, provided coupling of the GO underlayment with nanoprism LSPR, which was evidenced by a SERS enhancement of GO’s D band and G band. Interestingly, the Raman signal from FrGO compared to ArGO and GO (Figure 2a) had a 2- and 2.5-fold decrease, respectively, in overall plasmonic enhancement. Weakened annealing of GO with nanoprisms occurs when GO is reduced prior to evaporative deposition. The reduction in overall intensity of the spectra can result from decoupling and transfer of resonance energy to plasmonic nanoantenna (i.e., nanoparticle), which may lead to a decrease in polarization of D and G bands. Simultaneously, Yu et al.42 suggested destruction of large π-conjugation domains and removal of electronegative oxygen species during reduction negatively affected those resonant polarizability domains. The effects of NP size, GO surface concentration, and surface reduction on GERS-SERS signal of R6G were investigated by incubating various GO and NP constructs in 10−5 M R6G (Figure 3a,b). GO-NP hybrids made with 200 nm nanospheres gave a weaker Raman signal than a substrate fabricated with 500 nm nanospheres (Figure 3b). Table S3 summarizes their intensity ratios (±SD), which were calculated from R6G′s 614 cm−1 C−C−C in-plane vibrational mode. Larger NPs showed more optimal Raman responses, and I500 nm/I200 nm intensity ratio >1 is observed with a decrease in NP’s size blue shifting the LSPR λmax and causing a decrease in resonance with an exciting wavelength of 532 nm. Previous reports from Van Duyne38 and Masson43 groups have shown that ideal resonance coupling occurs when the monochromatic exciting wavelength is aligned with or slightly blue-shifted with respect to the LSPR λmax. From Figure 3a,b, an increase in GO surface density leads to a decrease in sensitivity. This is likely a result of charge dispersions and/or loss of scattered light to adjoining or E

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Figure 4. Raman spectra (A) show sensitivity of R6G molecules to various ArGO and/or NP surfaces. In (B) a comparison is made between ArGONP and plain NP substrates. Asterisks indicate peaks that are present in ArGO-NP spectra but not in NP spectra.

since CT interactions are permitted between two charged molecules via either ground-state charge transfer or excitedstate charge transfer mechanisms.45 These key findings prove hybrid-amplification of R6G occurs as a result of ArGO binding near nanoprisms. The ArGO-NP hybrid shows high sensitivity and strong interaction with 10−5 M R6G, indicating the potential for quantitative analysis of very low concentrations in aqueous samples. Figure 5a,c shows concentration-dependent SERS spectra with two different sampling methods, drop-casted and incubated, respectively. Drop-casting was ideal for quick detection of molecules down to 10−9 M, and concentration fitting to a calibration curve gave a robust adjusted r2 value equal to 0.9995. Contrary to spotting, hybrids were incubated for 48 h improving detection limits by 1 order of magnitude (10−10 M). The detection limits were calculated to be ∼10−9 M and ∼10−10 M for drop-casting and incubating sampling, respectively. Incubation improved S/N by 3-fold at 10−10 M (Figure 5a) when compared to 10−9 M on drop-casted substrates (Figure 5c). The linear range for incubated and spotted samples covered 4 orders of magnitude. Incubation also seemed to reduce background fluorescence, possibly because of the increased incubation times allowing for closer planar absorption and/or orientation onto the GO.47 Again, this effect is due to an enhanced resonance energy transfer process from dye molecules to graphene domains. SERS Detection of Environmentally Significant Samples. PCB is a chlorinated biphenyl compound that at one time was in high production for use in building materials, heat transfer fluid, industrial lubricant, and dielectric fluid.48 Categorized as a persistent organic pollutant, environmental exposure to PCBs poses a high risk to human and ecological health.48,49 In our method, reduced GO-NP substrates were used to enhance the Raman signal of three highly hydrophobic tetrachlorinated PCBs. Structures of PCB-47, PCB-52, and PCB-77, and parent compound biphenyl are given in Table 1. “Dioxin like” PCB-77 can readily stack onto GO as it maintains a coplanar configuration. The two ortho-substitutions on PCB47 and PCB-52 forces the aromatic rings to rotate at the C−C bridge and conform to a perpendicular noncoplanar configuration. The high number of chloro-substitutions also increases

remember that solute concentrations must be high enough to overcome solvation at the interfacial barrier and that when insoluble molecules are investigated local precipitation may be favored over graphitic adsorption, giving rise to increased LODs. Although the nonreduced GO-NP surface proved to be slightly better at detection than the ArGO-NP, we prefer to investigate the detection limits for model compound R6G on ArGO-NP as it will be more advantageous later while detecting pollutants that are hydrophobic in nature. For these reasons ArGO was used as an NP underlayment for the rest of this investigation. Figure 4 shows spectra of R6G on SiO2, GERS, SERS, and GERS-SERS substrates. On SiO2-only slides R6G could not be detected due to strong background fluorescence; however, upon introduction of ArGO onto SiO2, the R6G-GERS bands are easily identifiable. Comparing ArGO-coated slides to NPonly slides, one observes a several-order amplification which stems from plasmonic EM enhancement. Application of the ArGO underlayment to NP slides further amplifies R6G signals. Figure 4b shows the details of the Raman spectra to exemplify some key manifestations that arise with the introduction of ArGO. A decrease in the fluorescence signal is a clear indication that R6G is more tightly bound to the hybrid compared to NPs alone, which facilitates distancedependent fluorescence resonance energy transfer. Peaks at 1129, 1314, and 1576 cm−1 in Figure 4b indicate those not present in NP spectra, which suggests physical interactions with ArGO. The C−H in-plane bending mode at 1129 cm−1 is broad due to multiple vibrations contributing to the band. Newly formed peaks at 1314 and 1576 cm−1 indicate strong coupling of ArGO with R6G′s Caromatic ring stretching. The most striking manifestation in the spectra is the strongly amplified aromatic in-plane band at 614 cm−1, especially with respect to the amplification of the aromatic coupled out of plane C−H band at 775 cm−1. Nitrogen-associated Raman bands show moderate red shifts 1180−1186 cm−1 and 1308−1314 cm−1 for N−H bends, and 1507−1512 cm−1 for C−N stretch. The loss of photon energy (red shift) as ArGO phonon interacts with these vibrating modes was accompanied by an increase in Raman intensity suggesting possible CT between electron-rich ArGO to electron-poor R6G-cation. This is a reasonable assumption F

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have several vibrational modes,50,51 namely, in the C−H bond and benzene ring deformation region (600−1100 cm−1), C−H wagging and biphenyl bridge stretching region (1100−1400 cm−1), and benzene framework vibration region (1400−1650 cm−1). The number of chlorine substitutions and their position on the biphenyl backbone can drastically shift a peak or enhance peak intensity. In addition, PCB adsorbed onto a rGONP substrate can affect a Raman bands harmonic frequency, which can cause a shift in Raman peak maximum. Arrows in Table 1 represent harmonic frequency shifts that were determined by comparing powder Raman peaks to the SERS Raman peaks after adsorption onto rGO-NP substrates. rGO and rGO-NP Substrates Enhance PCB Raman Signal. Table 1 summarizes previous work on detecting PCBs using SERS analysis and it has been shown that modification of SERS substrates can provide additional enhancements and improve overall sensitivity. To demonstrate the ability of an rGO-NP surface to enhance a PCB Raman signal, we compared the signals from PCB-47 powder to the signal after immersion of rGO and rGO-NP surfaces in a 1 mM solution of PCB-47 for 2 h, and dried under ambient conditions. Raman peak shifts to higher or lower energies are a good indication of PCB adsorption to rGO and rGO-NP. PCB-47’s C−Cl band at ∼1141 cm−1 had a notable 4 nm shift. Attention is given to PCB-77, which saw a similar peak shift of the same vibrational band (Table 1). This coincidence suggests that the C2 axis located at the 4,4′ carbon atoms is sensitive to GO adsorption, and when chlorinated this interaction between the surface and the chlorine bond can be detected. As shown in Figure S7, the presence of rGO or rGO-NP gave a significant enhancement to signal intensity. Good peak resolution can be attributed to various effects: (i) enhancement of signal by increasing the density of molecules in the sensing area; (ii) significant increase in intensity of the spectrum acquired from rGO-NP substrate, which is conducive with EM enhancements that occur when molecules are near nanoprism enhancing regions. (iii) An added benefit of using GO for adsorption of PCBs is that the majority of PCB’s characteristic peaks are easily distinguishable from GO’s broad 1340 and 1600 cm −1 peaks, and deconvolution of lower frequency bands from the very broad GO peaks is easily resolved. After incubation in PCB solution, the rGO-NP substrates were rinsed by ultrapure water to remove unbound PCB prior to SERS measurements. The y-offset curves in Figure 6a are GERS-SERS spectra of PCB-77 at concentrations that span 4 orders of magnitude. For comparison, a PCB-77 powder spectrum is also provided. A detection limit of 100 nM was achieved by resolution of 6 characteristic peaks at 671 cm−1 (C−Cl stretch), 1027 cm−1 (ring breathing), 1133 cm−1 (aromatic band), 1250 cm−1 (C−H wagging), 1302 cm−1 (C−C bridge stretching), and 1599 cm−1 (ring stretching). A calibration plot generated from the peak at 1602 cm−1 (ring stretching) gives a linear relationship from 100 μM to 100 nM. At a concentration of 100 nM PCB-77 was soluble in water and could be used interchangeably without a significant effect on sensitivity or identification. Testing of rGO-NP surfaces toward noncoplanar PCB-47 and PCB-52 indicated that the noncoplanar variants have significantly decreased signal when compared to PCB-77 intensity. In fact, PCB-52 was not detectable within the concentration range used, and PCB-47 was only detectable at concentrations greater than or equal to 1 mM, as shown in Figure S7. The inability to detect PCB-52 might be the result of the chlorine position and overall

Figure 5. Concentration-dependent R6G spectra are given for depositions (A) and 48 h incubations (C), for their respective solutions. Intensity values for the 614 cm−1 peak were taken from (A) and (C) to plot values for (C) and (D) respectively. Linear range for R6G deposition (A) embraced 4 orders of magnitude (r2 = 0.9995) and for 48 h incubation (D) 4 orders of magnitude (r2 = 0.91) were realized before saturation occurred.

the chances for hydrophobic−hydrophobic interactions with rGO. The C2 axis in these three PCBs is perpendicular to 4,4′ carbon atoms. Raman spectra obtained from PCB powders are provided in the Supporting Information (Figure S6). It was empirically determined that biphenyl was not Raman active in powder or GERS-SERS analysis. Even though most of biphenyl’s normal modes should be Raman active, it seems that chlorination of biphenyl is required to perturb the polarizable tensors of the benzene framework enough for Raman or SERS detection. Shown in Table 1, PCB powders G

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Table 1. Structural Information, Observed Major Raman Peaks, and Limit of Detection (LOD)55−60 Data of Biphenyl, PCB-47, PCB-52, and PCB-77

compartmentalize from solution onto the rGO-NP substrate like coplanar PCB-77, and interactions between the surface and the molecule are critical for trace detection of PCB from solution. We then conducted multiplexed PCB detection to identify specific congeners from one sample. Stapleton and co-workers have shown strong correlations between the concentration of polyhalogenated compounds in soil, dust, and building material and their metabolites in urine samples acquired from humans in close contact with these materials.52 Their method of analysis for environmental and human samples combines simple organic extraction and GC-MS analysis.52−54 To mimic a sample extracted from a PCB-contaminated environmental sample such as soil, dust, or building material, we combined PCB stock solutions to create a mixture for fingerprint identification of PCB-47, PCB-52, and PCB-77. The final concentration of each PCB in the mixture was 333 μM in acetone. Figure 6b shows GERS-SERS Raman curves of PCB-47 (1 mM), PCB-77 (1 mM), the mixture, and a powder spectra of PCB-52. Curves and asterisks are color-coded for the purpose of congener fingerprinting. Several very strong EM enhanced peaks confirm the fingerprint for coplanar PCB-77. To our surprise noncoplanar PCB-52which was not detectable in a unimolecular solutionwas fingerprintable in a mixture. Peaks in the powder spectra (red curve) match several peaks in the mixture’s spectra as indicated by red asterisks. It is plausible a combination of π−π stacking and Van der Waals attractions promoted PCB-52 compartmentalization from the solution onto the Raman enhancing rGO-NP surface. PCB-47 and PCB-52 peaks are shown to have autonomy or contribute to peak intensity. All of

Figure 6. (A) GERS-SERS spectra of PCB-77 after 2 h incubation on rGO-NPs. (B) Multiplex identification of PCB-47 (black curve), PCB52 (red curve), and PCB-77 (blue curve) in a mixture containing 333 μM of each. Spectra in (A) and (B) are y-offset for viewing purposes.

symmetry that occurs with a 2,2′,6,6′ pattern of substitution. This evidence shows noncoplanar PCBs do not readily H

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molecules via the π−π stacking and hydrophobic interactions. The presence of several Raman band shifts confirmed absorption of PCBs onto the GO-NP surface. The substrate’s limit of detection for coplanar PCB-77 is 100 nM. A mixture containing three tetrachlorbiphenyl compounds was investigated for simultaneous analysis of multiple analytes. By comparing PCB-47, PCB-52, and PCB-77 spectra to the mixture spectra we showed that it is possible to conduct PCBisomer fingerprinting in a mixture. The surfaces potential for portability, facile detection, fast processing, and good limits of detection for environmental significant compounds make it an attractive strategy. These GOAL derived GO-NP substrates can be tailored to interact with a multitude of different analytes and when combined with multiplexing capabilities can prove very useful in real world applications for detection of environmental pollutants.

the peaks marked are confirmed using basic peak fitting software. This data suggests that there is great potential for the fingerprinting of other environmentally significant PCBs and/ or halogenated organic compounds that pose a high risk to ecological and human health. rGO-NP Arrays for High Throughput Detection of PCB. To show high throughput analysis on GOAL derived rGO-NP substrates, we fabricated 3 × 11 arrays on glass slides. To make the array we used a PDMS hole device that was made from a 3-D printed mold. Perforated PDMS was applied to rGO covered glass slides in a way that would prevent bubbles from forming. A liquid tight seal between PDMS and rGO covered glass slides provided 3 mm wells from which 0.5 μL polystyrene bead solution (1:5, beads:EtOH) was deposited and evaporated under ambient conditions. A picture of the array after fabrication by GOAL is shown in Figure 7a. To

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ASSOCIATED CONTENT

S Supporting Information *

The Supporting Information is available free of charge on the ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.7b00182. Materials and experimental details for fabrication and characterization of GO and silanized glass slides, including FTIR, Raman, extinction coefficient, size separation, AFM, hydrophobicity, and UV−vis spectroscopy; SERS details including R6G peak assignments surface intensity ratio data (PDF)

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AUTHOR INFORMATION

Corresponding Author

*E-mail: [email protected]. Tel: (951) 827-2702. Fax: (951) 827-4713.

Figure 7. rGO-NP arrays for high-throughput analysis (A) and (B) GERS-SERS spectra of PCB-77 demonstrating the rGO-NP array (blue and green curve) is more sensitive than nanoprism array (red curve) and flat silver (black curve). The rainbow shown in (A) is a result of incident white light scatter from the nanostructures (i.e., nanogratings).

ORCID

Quan Cheng: 0000-0003-0934-358X Notes

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to acknowledge the financial support from NSF (CHE-1413449). We thank Dr. Kristy McKeating for critical reading of the manuscript and suggestions.

demonstrate that rGO-NP surfaces have the feasibility for highthroughput multiplex analysis we spotted 1.5 μL of PCB-77 onto flat silver, a nanoprism array, and a rGO-NP array, and allowed to dry under ambient conditions. We were able to detect PCB-77 at 50 μM (green curve) and 5 μM (blue curve) in seconds (Figure 7b). Compared to nanoprisms and flat silver it is shown that rGO-NP substrates provide a considerable enhancement to intensity.

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CONCLUSIONS By combining GO with silver nanoprisms we have fabricated a hybrid system capable of analyte capture, Raman enhancement, and trace detection of tetrachlorobiphenyls. We have shown that intimate contact between the two materials can produce orders of magnitude enhancement to the Raman signal of bound analytes. Model compound R6G is a resonant Raman molecule that when adsorbed to various GO and NP constructs provided a way to thoroughly investigate and confirm the GERS-SERS phenomenon seen herein. Furthermore, adsorption of R6G to ArGO-NP gave rise to specific Raman band shifts and amplifications, and offered a limit of detection to 100 pM for R6G. A reduced form of GO-NP was used to attract and efficiently secure planar aromatic and noncoplanar PCB I

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DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.7b00182 ACS Sens. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX