Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopic analysis of maleic hydrazide adsorbed on gold surface

•The intermolecular hydrogen bonds of MH in solid state were investigated.•SERS spectra of MH recorded using gold colloidal nanoparticles were studied.•The effect of concentration and pH on the SERS spectra of MH was discussed.•UV spectra of gold colloid with MH in varied pH were analyzed.•The detection limit of the MH solution can be as low as ∼1 ppm.

In this paper, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra of maleic hydrazide (MH, 6-hydroxy-3(2H)-pyridazinone) were studied by using citrate-reduced gold colloidal nanoparticles. Comparisons between the prominent SERS bands and the precise mode descriptions predicted through density functional theory (DFT) simulations at the B3LYP/6-311++g(d,p) level allowed an in-depth orientation analysis of the adsorbed species on gold surfaces. And main forms of hydrogen bonds in the solid state of MH were also determined to be OH⋯O. Furthermore, the effects of concentration and pH on the SERS spectra of the molecule were discussed. It is found that with the different adsorbate concentration, the SERS spectra of MH show significant changes in their features, indicating different orientations and adsorption sites of the molecule on the gold colloidal surface. The SERS and absorption spectra under different pH conditions show that a basic environment leads to the deprotonation of N2 and the nearly parallel orientation of the MH molecule on the gold surface. Moreover, the enhanced characteristic bands were observed at MH concentrations down to about 1 ppm with the gold colloids, demonstrating a potential of the technique in the analysis of MH residues.

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