Influence of bulky substituents on single-molecule SERS sensitivity

The surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) detection limit strongly depends on the molecular structure, which we demonstrate for a family of tert-butyl-substituted porphycenes. Even though the investigated species present very similar photophysical properties, the ratio between the SERS signal a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of chemical physics Vol. 156; no. 1; p. 014201
Main Authors Pszona, Maria, Gawinkowski, Sylwester, Jäger, Regina, Kamińska, Izabela, Waluk, Jacek
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 07.01.2022
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Summary:The surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) detection limit strongly depends on the molecular structure, which we demonstrate for a family of tert-butyl-substituted porphycenes. Even though the investigated species present very similar photophysical properties, the ratio between the SERS signal and fluorescence background depends on the number of bulky tert-butyl groups. Moreover, the probability of single molecule detection systematically drops with the number of the moieties attached to the pyrrole ring. As steric hindrance is the only significantly changing feature among the studied chromophores, we attribute the observed phenomena to the spatial structure. We also show that the sensitivity of the SERS technique can be improved by lowering the temperature. We managed to observe single-molecule spectra for derivatives for which this was unattainable at room temperature.
ISSN:1089-7690
DOI:10.1063/5.0074840