Analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water with gold nanoparticles decorated hydrophobic porous polymer as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrate

• A simple and sensitive method for analysis of PAHs is developed.
• AuNPs decorated hydrophobic porous polymer shows efficient absorption of PAHs.
• The substrate presents high SERS enhancement performance in PAHs detection.
• The method is used to analyze PAHs mixture in two water samples.

A method for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) sensing of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is reported. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) decorated hydrophobic porous glycidyl methacrylate–ethylene dimethacrylate (GMA–EDMA) polymer is developed as the SERS substrate. GMA–EDMA material with porosity and permeability shows rapid and efficient adsorption of PAHs through presumed hydrophobic interaction, which brings the analytes close to the substrate. Meanwhile, the three dimensional porous morphology might benefit AuNPs distribution for high SERS enhancement. Studies on the effects of AuNPs surface coverage on the substrate and time of PAHs–substrate interaction are presented. The qualitative analysis and quantitative tendency of this method for PAHs detection are investigated with anthracene, phenanthrene and pyrene as probe molecules, showing that the characteristic fingerprint vibrational peaks of each PAH can be readily identified, and the limit of detections are 0.93 × 10−7, 4.5 × 10−7 and 1.1 × 10−7 M respectively. Moreover, the substrate exhibits high reproducibility with the relative standard deviation about 16% in spot and spot SERS intensity. Using this method for rapid screening of PAHs mixture in some water samples are performed well, which might be useful for environmental pollutions monitoring.

AuNPs decorated hydrophobic porous polymer as a substrate was developed for SERS analysis of PAHs. The substrate presented effective absorption of PAHs and high enhancement performance in SERS detection.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide