Optimizing Melamine Resin Microspheres with Excess Formaldehyde for the SERS Substrate

Lu Shen; Junfu Zhu; Yuqing Guo; Zhirong Zhu; Xiaogang Wang; Zhixian Hao

doi:10.3390/nano7090263

Optimizing Melamine Resin Microspheres with Excess Formaldehyde for the SERS Substrate

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2017 Sep 6;7(9):263. doi: 10.3390/nano7090263.

Authors

Lu Shen¹, Junfu Zhu², Yuqing Guo³, Zhirong Zhu⁴, Xiaogang Wang⁵, Zhixian Hao⁶

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. [email protected].
² Shanghai Key Laboratory of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. [email protected].
³ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. [email protected].
⁴ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. [email protected].
⁵ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. [email protected].
⁶ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. [email protected].

Abstract

Influence of the excess monomer within the synthetic reaction solution of melamine resin microspheres (MFMSs) on the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) enhancement from Rhodamine 6G (R6G) was investigated, where the R6G was adsorbed on the silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) that were loaded on the MFMSs. Surface characteristics of the MFMSs were modified by the excess monomer (i.e., the excessive melamine or formaldehyde) through its terminal overreaction, which can be simply controlled by some of the synthetic reaction conditions, thus further allowing us to optimize the assembly of the loaded AgNPs for the SERS detection. These SERS substrates incorporating the optimized MFMSs with the excess formaldehyde can also be used for tracing analyses of more environmental and food contaminants.

Keywords: SERS substrate; environmental contaminants; excess monomer; melamine resin microspheres.