Unraveling surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy results through chemometrics and machine learning: principles, progress, and trends.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has gained increasing attention because it provides rich chemical information and high sensitivity, being applicable in many scientific fields including medical diagnosis, forensic analysis, food control, and microbiology. Although SERS is often limited by the lack of selectivity in the analysis of samples with complex matrices, the use of multivariate statistics and mathematical tools has been demonstrated to be an efficient strategy to circumvent this issue. Importantly, since the rapid development of artificial intelligence has been promoting the implementation of a wide variety of advanced multivariate methods in SERS, a discussion about the extent of their synergy and possible standardization becomes necessary. This critical review comprises the principles, advantages, and limitations of coupling SERS with chemometrics and machine learning for both qualitative and quantitative analytical applications. Recent advances and trends in combining SERS with uncommonly used but powerful data analysis tools are also discussed. Finally, a section on benchmarking and tips for selecting the suitable chemometric/machine learning method is included. We believe this will help to move SERS from an alternative detection strategy to a general analytical technique for real-life applications.

On the use of Au@Ag core-shell nanorods for SERS detection of Thiram diluted solutions.

Rod-shaped gold-silver core-shells (AuNR@Ag) were synthesized for an analysis of the amplification of Raman scattering (surface-enhanced Raman scattering, SERS). The microscopy characterization confirmed a hierarchically structured nanoparticle with well-defined size and morphology, however, with a degree of dispersion in terms of shell thickness and symmetry of Ag deposition. In this paper, we analyze the possible effects of such structural dispersion in the SERS spectra of 4-aminobenzothiol (4-ABT) and in its detection at low concentrations in solutions. The interpretation of experimental results was supported by classical electrodynamics simulations based on the boundary element method (BEM). We verified that even in the case of asymmetrical Ag deposition onto AuNRs, a large SERS normal may be observed, which leads to the possibility of using such nanostructures for SERS applications aiming at low analyte concentrations detections. We show that the SERS substrates based on such AuNR@Ag present very high sensitivity for the detection of ultra-low concentrations of 4-ABT reaching a detection limit of 1.10-15 mol L-1, which indicates the possibility of analytical applications in the detection of analytes such as pesticides.

Colloidal gold clusters formation and chemometrics for direct SERS determination of bioanalytes in complex media.

In this work, we report the sensitive and selective sensing of the purine bases adenine and guanine in urine matrix by using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and a colloidal SERS substrate. To identify suitable conditions for quantitative analysis, the pH dependence of spectra of adenine, guanine, urine simulant and their mixtures was studied on gold nanoparticles suspension. Interestingly, although the urine matrix promotes the analytes signal suppression and overlapping bands, it can also cause an improvement in repeatability of the SERS measurements. This effect was associated to the relatively controlled formation of small-sized gold clusters and it was investigated both experimentally and theoretically. Furthermore, a correlation constrained multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) method was developed to resolve overlapping SERS bands and to quantify physiologically relevant (micromolar) concentrations of the bioanalytes. The performance of the proposed MCR-ALS approach (assessed in terms of figures of merit) was similar to that obtained by using partial least squares regression, but with the additional advantage of retrieving valuable spectral information. Therefore, this method can be used for improving selectivity of colloidal clusters in qualitative and quantitative SERS analysis of complex media, avoiding the need for tedious nanoparticle-surface modification or preliminary chromatographic separation.

Intensity Fluctuations in Single-Molecule Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering.

Around 20 years ago, the first reports of single-molecule surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SM-SERS) caused a revolution in nanotechnology. Several researchers were quick to recognize the importance of a technique that can provide molecular vibrational fingerprinting at the SM level. Since then, a large amount of work has been devoted to the development of nanostructures capable of SM-SERS detection. A great effort has also been geared toward elucidating the different mechanisms that contribute to the effect. The understanding of the concept of plasmonic SERS hotspots, the role of chemical effects, and the dynamics of atomic and cluster rearrangements in nanometric domains has significantly advanced, driven by new computational and experimental methods used to study SM-SERS. In particular, SERS intensity fluctuations (SIFs) are now recognized as a hallmark of SM-SERS. Interpretation of SM-SERS data must take into consideration temporal and spatial variations as a natural consequence of the extreme localization inherent to surface plasmon resonances. Further analysis of variations in spectral signature, due to either molecular reorientation or photo (or thermal) processes, pointed to a new area that combines the power of SERS fingerprinting at the SM level to modern concepts of catalysis, such as hot-electrons-driven chemistry. This large body of work on the fundamental characteristics of the SM-SERS effect paved the way to the interpretation of other related phenomena, such as tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS). Despite all the fundamental progress, there are still very few examples of real applications of SM-SERS. In recent years, our research group has been studying SIFs, focused on different ways to use SM-SERS. The obvious application of SM-SERS is in analytical chemistry, particularly for quantification at ultralow concentrations (below 1 nM). However, quantification using SM-SERS faces a fundamental sampling problem: the analytes (adsorbed in very small amounts, i.e., low surface coverage) must find rare SERS hotspots (areas with intense electric field localization that yields SERS). This limitation leads to strong temporal and spatial variations in SERS intensities, which translates into very large error bars in an experimental calibration curve. We tackled this problem by introducing the concept of "digital SERS". This approach provided a roadmap for SERS quantification at ultralow concentrations and a potential pathway for a better understanding of the "reproducibility problem" associated with SERS. In this Account, we discuss not only the analytical applications but also other implementations of SM-SERS demonstrated by our group. These include the use of SM-SERS as a tool to probe colloidal aggregation, to evaluate the efficiency of SERS substrates, and to characterize the energy of localized resonances. SERS involves a series of random processes: hotspots are rare; surfaces/clusters constantly reconstruct; and molecules diffuse, adsorb, and desorb. All these pathways contribute to strong fluctuations in SERS intensities. Our work indicates that a statistical view of the effect can lead to interesting insights and the potential to fulfill the promise of this SM technique for real-world applications.

Detection of Plasmon Coupling between Silver Nanowires Based on Hyperspectral Darkfield and SERS Imaging and Supported by DDA Theoretical Calculations.

We report the unprecedented observation of plasmon coupling between silver nanowires, showing how the surface-enhanced Raman scattering depends upon this interaction and how the spectrum can be shaped by the hot spot. Such observations were accomplished by Raman spectroscopy mapping of silver nanowires modified with rhodamine. The local spectra on the hot spots were measured by darkfield hyperspectral microscopy, a powerful but uncommonly used technique that is capable of determining the location, structure, and spectra of the hot spots. The result obtained by the simulation of two parallel nanowires based on the discrete dipole approximation (DDA) method was in excellent agreement with the results obtained experimentally.

Critical assessment of enhancement factor measurements in surface-enhanced Raman scattering on different substrates.

The SERS enhancement factor (SERS-EF) is one of the most important parameters that characterizes the ability of a given substrate to enhance the Raman signal for SERS applications. The comparison of SERS intensities and SERS-EF values across different substrates is a common practice to unravel the performance of a given substrate. In this study, it is shown that such a comparison may lack significance if we compare substrates of very distinct nature and optical properties. It is specifically shown that the SERS-EF values for static substrates (e.g. immobilized metallic nanostructures) cannot be compared to those of dynamic ones (e.g. colloidal metal nanoparticle solutions), and that the optical properties for the latter show strong dependence on the metal-molecule interaction dynamics. The most representative experimental results concerning the dynamic substrates have been supported by generalized Mie theory simulations, which are tools used to describe the substrate complexity and the microscopic information not usually taken into account.

Mapping the energy distribution of SERRS hot spots from anti-Stokes to Stokes intensity ratios.

The anomalies in the anti-Stokes to Stokes intensity ratios in single-molecule surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering were investigated. Brilliant green and crystal violet dyes were the molecular probes, and the experiments were carried out on an electrochemically activated Ag surface. The results allowed new insights into the origin of these anomalies and led to a new method to confirm the single-molecule regime in surface-enhanced Raman scattering. Moreover, a methodology to estimate the distribution of resonance energies that contributed to the imbalance in the anti-Stokes to Stokes intensity ratios at the electromagnetic hot spots was proposed. This method allowed the local plasmonic resonance energies on the metallic surface to be spatially mapped.

Fluctuations of the Stokes and anti-Stokes surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering intensities in an electrochemical environment.

Stokes and anti-Stokes SERRS intensity fluctuations were observed from a roughened silver electrode immersed in diluted solutions of Brilliant Green (BG), a behaviour linked to single-molecule events. The distributions of the anti-Stokes to Stokes ratios were obtained and their shape showed a strong dependence on the applied potential.

Using polycarbonate membranes as templates for the preparation of Au nanostructures for surface-enhanced Raman scattering.

Polycarbonate membranes (PCM) of various pores sizes (400, 200, 100 and 50 nm) were used as templates for gold deposition. The electrodeposition from gold ions resulted in the formation of gold nanotubes when large pores size PCMs (400 and 200 nm) were used. On the other hand, gold nanowires were predominant for the PCMs with smaller pores size (100 and 50 nm). Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) from the probe molecule 4-mercaptopyridine (4-MPy) was obtained from all these nanostructures. The SERS efficiency of the substrates produced using the PCM templates were compared to two commonly used SERS platforms: a roughened gold electrode and gold nanostructures electrodeposited through organized polystyrene spheres (PSS). The SERS signal of the probe molecule increased as the pore diameter of the PCM template decreased. Moreover, the SERS efficiency from the nanostructures produced using 50 nm PCM templates was four and two times better than the signal from the roughened gold electrode and the PSS template, respectively. The SERS substrates prepared using PCM templates were more homogenous over a larger area (ca. 1 cm2), presented better spatial and sample to sample reproducibility than the other substrates. These results show that SERS substrates prepared using PCM templates are promising for the fabrication of planar SERS platforms for analytical/bioanalytical applications.