Experimental and Theoretical Study of Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectra of Sulfadiazine Adsorbed on Nanoscale Gold Colloids

Sulfadiazine, as a class of antibiotics, has been widely used in the world for decades; however, its surface-enhanced Raman spectra (SERS) on gold colloids are obviously different from ordinary Raman spectra in the solid powder and liquid solution. To explore the reasons for such significant differences, we used density functional theory calculations and normal-mode analysis to investigate the effects of the configuration, conformation, protonation, hydrogen-bonding interaction, and adsorption configurations of sulfadiazine on gold clusters to check these different effects on the vibrational assignments. Our calculated results can be summarized as two points. First, the Raman spectra strongly depend on the configuration, conformation, protonation, and hydrogen bonding of sulfadiazine. Second, the wagging vibration displays a significant vibrational frequency shift and a very strong SERS peak responsible for the observed SERS signal when sulfadiazine is adsorbed on gold clusters through the terminal amino group. This is different from another adsorption configuration through two oxygen atoms of the -SO2NH- group on gold clusters. Finally, we further investigate the potential energy surfaces along the wagging vibration and the binding interaction of -NH2 adsorbed on different sites of gold surfaces.