Aerosol Dry Printing for SERS and Photoluminescence-Active Gold Nanostructures Preparation for Detection of Traces in Dye Mixtures

We proposed a novel method of nanostructure preparation for observation of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) based on the deposition of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) above the thin dye film by dry aerosol printing. We detected various enhanced SERS and MEF signals of films of malachite green (MG) and rhodamine B (RhB) mixtures, depending on the surface packing density of Au NPs on the strip, and found the optimum one to achieve the 3.5 x 10(5) SERS enhancement. It was shown that statistical methods of chemometrics such as projection on latent structures provided the opportunity to distinguish SERS of MG from 100 ppm RhB in a mixture, whereas separation of MEF signals are feasible even for a mixture of MG and 1 ppm RhB due to two-photon excitation.

Automated summary

A novel method of nanostructure preparation using dry aerosol printing and gold nanoparticles (GNPs) deposition on thin dye films was proposed for the observation of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF). Enhanced SERS and MEF signals were detected and evaluated for films of malachite green (MG) and rhodamine B (RhB) mixtures with different surface packing densities of Au NPs. The results showed that chemometrics statistical methods, such as projection on latent structures, could distinguish SERS signals of MG from 100 ppm RhB in a mixture, while separation of MEF signals was feasible even for a mixture of MG and 1 ppm RhB due to two-photon excitation.