Highly sensitive determination of iron (III) ion based on phenanthroline probe: Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy methods

In this paper, we introduced Raman spectroscopy techniques that were based on the traditional Fe3+ determination method with phenanthroline as a probe. Interestingly, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)-based approach exhibited excellent sensitivities to phenanthroline. Different detection mechanisms were observed for the RR and SERS techniques, in which the RR intensity increased with increasing Fe3+ concentration due to the observation of the RR effect of the phenanthroline-Fe2+ complex, whereas the SERS intensity increased with decreasing Fe3+ concentration due to the observation of the SERS effect of the uncomplexed phenanthroline. More importantly, the determination sensitivity was substantially improved in the presence of a SERS-active substrate, giving a detection limit as low as 0.001 mu/mL, which is 20 times lower than the limit of the UV-vis and RR methods. Furthermore, the proposed SERS method was free from other ions interference and can be used quality and sensitivity for the determination of the city tap water. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.