SERS-based chip for discrimination of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde in aqueous solution using silver reduction.

A method is described for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) discrimination of formaldehyde (FA) and acetaldehyde (AA) in aqueous sample solutions. It is based on the use of a paper strip containing 4-aminothiophenol (Atp)-modified reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/[Ag(NH)] (rGO/[Ag(NH)]/Atp). The addition of FA or AA induces the conversion of [Ag(NH)] complex to silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) because of aldehyde-induced silver reduction reaction.

Detection of leucine aminopeptidase activity in serum using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

Leucine aminopeptidase (LAP), an important proteolytic enzyme, is closely associated with diverse physiological and pathological disorders such as liver injury and cancers. Hence, it is imperative to develop an effective method to detect LAP activity for early diagnosis of diseases. In this work, we report a novel SERS probe bis-s-s'-[(s)-2-amino-N-(3-thiophenyl)-Leu].

A phenylboronate-based SERS nanoprobe for detection and imaging of intracellular peroxynitrite.

A surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) based nanoprobe was developed for detection and imaging of endogenous peroxynitrite in living cells. The probe was fabricated by assembling 3-mercaptophenylboronic acid pinacol ester onto the surface of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The detection of peroxynitrite is accomplished via measurement of the changes in the SERS spectra (at 882 cm) that are caused by the reaction between probe and peroxynitrite.

Reaction-based SERS nanosensor for monitoring and imaging the endogenous hypochlorous acid in living cells.

Hypochlorous acid (HOCl), as an important reactive oxygen species (ROS), is involved with many pathological and physiological pathways, whereas many aspects of its roles remain unclear due to the lack of robust analytical methods. In this work, we report a novel kind of special reaction-based nanosensors, gold nanoparticles modified with newly synthesized 2-mercapto-4-methoxy-phenol molecules (AuNPs/MMP), to detect the endogenous HOCl in living cells according to the changes in the SERS spectrum of AuNPs/MMP resulting from the reaction of HOCl with MMP on AuNPs. These nanosensors can rapidly respond to HOCl within 1 min with the detection limit at 10 M level.