Semi-quantitative analysis of multiple chemical mixtures in solution at trace level by surface-enhanced Raman Scattering

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technology combines with chemometric method of principal component analysis (PCA) was used to calculate the composition of chemical mixtures in solution. We reported here that there exists composition discrepancy between molecules in solution and molecules adsorbed on Ag@ Al2O3 nanorods substrates due to difference in adsorption kinetics of each component. We proposed here a way to calculate the adsorption kinetics factor for each component using a standard sample as the reference, with which one could correct the predictions given by PCA. We demonstrate the validity of this approach in estimating the compositions of mixtures with two, three and four components of 1, 4-Benzenedithiol, 2-Naphthalenethiol, 4-Mercaptobenzoic acid, and 4-Mercaptopyridine molecules, with acceptable errors. Furthermore, a general formula applied to more complex mixtures was proposed to calculate compositions in solution.