Title: 9. Shell-Isolated Nanoparticle-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SHINERS) of Electrode Surfaces

Author: Jian F. Li,  Rajapandiyan Panneerselvam and Zhong Q. Tian

Summary:

This chapter shows that nanoparticles (NPs) and nanostructures can play a key role in developing the new shell-isolated mode for characterizing various electrochemical systems. Shell-isolated nanoparticle-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SHINERS) has overcome the long-standing material-specific and morphology-specific limitations of the direct contact mode of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). SHINERS has enabled one to identify the species present in the passive layer formed during the gold leaching reaction in practical applications. More importantly, the strategy of quantitative analysis of SHINERS on electrode surface species is very useful for both fundamental and practical applications. The most important step in the SHINERS investigation is to prepare and characterize the pinhole-free shell-coated NPs. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images and SERS spectra from pyridine molecules on gold substrates are primarily used to ensure that the shell is pinhole-free.