CHARACTERIZATION OF THE COPPER SURFACE OPTIMIZED FOR USE AS A SUBSTRATE FOR SURFACE-ENHANCED RAMAN-SCATTERING

A new electrochemical procedure of roughening of a copper surface was developed, producing a surface with a high surface-enhanced Raman scat tering (SERS) activity. The surface morphology and composition was cha racterized by energy dispersive/wavelength dispersive/X-ray microprobe analysis and compared to the Cu electrodes roughened by the commonly used oxidation-reduction reactions. The morphology of such a surface w as completely different from those produced by traditional electrochem ical procedures. Moreover, X-ray microprobe analysis revealed that our new surface remained unoxidized in contrast to the other SERS active Cu surfaces. The potential profiles of SERS intensity of the ring brea thing mode of pyridine adsorbed on these surfaces were discussed and i nterpreted in terms of charge-transfer (CT) effect. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.