Trimetallic FeCoNi Metal-Organic Framework with Enhanced Peroxidase-like Activity for the Construction of a Colorimetric Sensor for Rapid Detection of Thiophenol in Water Samples

In recent years, nanozymes have attracted particular interest and attention as catalysts because of their high catalytic efficiency and stability compared with natural enzymes, whereas how to use simple methods to further improve the catalytic activity of nanozymes is still challenging. In this work, we report a trimetallic metal-organic framework (MOF) based on Fe, Co and Ni, which was prepared by replacing partial original Fe nodes of the Fe-MOF with Co and Ni nodes. The obtained FeCoNi-MOF shows both oxidase-like activity and peroxidase-like activity. FeCoNi-MOF can not only oxidize the chromogenic substrate 3,3,5,5-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) to its blue oxidation product oxTMB directly, but also catalyze the activation of H2O2 to oxidize the TMB. Compared with corresponding monometallic/bimetallic MOFs, the FeCoNi-MOF with equimolar metals hereby prepared exhibited higher peroxidase-like activity, faster colorimetric reaction speed (1.26-2.57 folds), shorter reaction time (20 min) and stronger affinity with TMB (2.50-5.89 folds) and H2O2 (1.73-3.94 folds), owing to the splendid synergistic electron transfer effect between Fe, Co and Ni. Considering its outstanding advantages, a promising FeCoNi-MOF-based sensing platform has been designated for the colorimetric detection of the biomarker H2O2 and environmental pollutant TP, and lower limits of detection (LODs) (1.75 μM for H2O2 and 0.045 μM for TP) and wider linear ranges (6-800 μM for H2O2 and 0.5-80 μM for TP) were obtained. In addition, the newly constructed colorimetric platform for TP has been applied successfully for the determination of TP in real water samples with average recoveries ranging from 94.6% to 112.1%. Finally, the colorimetric sensing platform based on FeCoNi-MOF is converted to a cost-effective paper strip sensor, which renders the detection of TP more rapid and convenient.

Two red/blue-emitting fluorescent probes for quick, portable, and selective detection of thiophenol in food, soil and plant samples, and their applications in bioimaging

Thiophenol (PhSH), which is widely used in many industries, poses significant health risks owing to its acute toxicity and irritating effects. Thus, the detection of PhSH is crucial for ensuring environmental and food safety. There is significant room for improvement in the sensing properties of the reported analytical methods, such as response time, detection limit, selectivity, and portable detection. Herein, we present two new red/blue fluorescence-emissive sensors (NS1 and NS2) for PhSH detection. After reacting with PhSH, NS1 exhibited a low detection limit (66.7 nM), red emission, fast response time of just 10 s, and large Stokes shift (240 nm). NS2 could detect PhSH with a low detection limit (75.8 nM), fast response time of 20 s, and blue emission. The noticeable color response and portability of the two probes made them suitable for on-site detection of PhSH in various samples, such as water, soil, plant, food samples, and living cells. Moreover, it has been shown that these probes could be used to determine PhSH content in smartphone applications, thin layer chromatography kits, and polysulfone capsule kits. Prepared probes have low cytotoxicity and show good permeability in tested living cells, which is important for early diagnosis, disease research, and emergency analysis. Compared with other studies, the proposed approach has remarkable advantages in terms of detection limit, portability, response time, and low cytotoxicity. Thus, it meets the crucial demand for ensuring health, environmental and food safety, and adherence to regulatory standards.

Obtaining extended insight into molecular systems by probing multiple pathways in second-order nonlinear spectroscopy

Second-order nonlinear spectroscopy is becoming an increasingly important technique in the study of interfacial systems owing to its marked ability to study molecular structures and interactions. The properties of such a system under investigation are contained within their intrinsic second-order susceptibilities which are mapped onto the measured nonlinear signals (e.g. sum-frequency generation) through the applied experimental settings. Despite this yielding a plethora of information, many crucial aspects of molecular systems typically remain elusive, for example the depth distributions, molecular orientation and local dielectric properties of its constituent chromophores. Here, it is shown that this information is contained within the phase of the measured signal and, critically, can be extracted through measurement of multiple nonlinear pathways (both the sum-frequency and difference-frequency output signals). Furthermore, it is shown that this novel information can directly be correlated to the characteristic vibrational spectra, enabling a new type of advanced sample characterization and a profound analysis of interfacial molecular structures. The theory underlying the different contributions to the measured phase of distinct nonlinear pathways is derived, after which the presented phase disentanglement methodology is experimentally demonstrated for model systems of self-assembled monolayers on several metallic substrates. The obtained phases of the local fields are compared to the corresponding phases of the nonlinear Fresnel factors calculated through the commonly used theoretical model, the three-layer model. It is found that, despite its rather crude assumptions, the model yields remarkable similarity to the experimentally obtained values, thus providing validation of the model for many sample classes.

Time-dependent band position difference between vibrational sum and difference frequency generation: a phenomenon originating from dispersion in the visible pulse

Vibrational spectroscopy is significant for identifying chemical specification. Here, the spectral band frequencies corresponding to the same molecular vibration in sum frequency generation (SFG) and difference frequency generation (DFG) spectra present delay-dependent deviation. Through numerical analysis of time resolved SFG and DFG spectra with a frequency marker in the incident IR pulse, the frequency ambiguity was not caused by any structure and dynamic variation on the surface, but from the dispersion in the incident visible pulse. Our results provide a helpful method to correct the vibrational frequency deviation and improve the assignment accuracy for SFG and DFG spectroscopies.

Enhanced Sum Frequency Generation for Monolayers on Au Relative to Silica: Local Field Factors and SPR Effect

Using metals as signal magnified substrates, surface plasmon-enhanced sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy is a promising technique to probe weak molecular-level signals at surfaces and interfaces. In this study, the vibrational signals of the n-alkane monolayer on the gold (Au) and silica substrates are investigated using the broadband femtosecond SFG. The enhancement factors are discovered to be up to ∼1076 and ∼31 for the methyl symmetric and asymmetric stretching (ss and as) modes of the monolayer, respectively. By systematically analyzing the second-order nonlinear susceptibility tensor components (χ_ijks), the Fresnel coefficients (F_ijks), and the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect, we find that the interplay between F_ijk and χ_ijk terms and the SPR effect dominate the SFG signal enhancement. Our study reveals that the relative contributions of different influencing factors (i.e., Fresnel coefficients and SPR) to the SFG signal enhancement provide an approach to interpreting enhanced SFG vibrational signals detected from probe molecules on distinct substrates and may finally guide the design of the experimental methodology to improve the detection sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio.

Evidence for a Local Field Effect in Surface Plasmon-Enhanced Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectra

Surface plasmon-enhanced vibrational spectroscopy has been demonstrated to be an important highly sensitive diagnostic technique, but its enhanced mechanism is yet to be explored. In this study, we couple femtosecond sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy (SFG-VS) with surface plasmon generated by the excitation of localized gold nanorods/nanoparticles and investigate the plasmonically enhanced factors (EFs) of SFG signals from poly(methyl methacrylate) films. Through monitoring the SFG intensity of carbonyl and ester methyl groups, we have established a correlation between EFs and the coupling of localized surface plasmon resonance with SFG and visible beams. It is found that the total enhanced factor is approximately proportional to the square of an enhanced factor of the SFG electromagnetic field and the fourth power of the enhanced factor of the visible electromagnetic field. The local field effect is roughly expressed to be the square of an enhanced factor of the visible electromagnetic field. This finding will help to guide the experimental design of plasmon-enhanced SFG to drastically improve the detection sensitivity and thus provide greater insight into the ultrafast dynamics near plasmonic surfaces.

Experimental characterization techniques for plasmon-assisted chemistry

Plasmon-assisted chemistry is the result of a complex interplay between electromagnetic near fields, heat and charge transfer on the nanoscale. The disentanglement of their roles is non-trivial. Therefore, a thorough knowledge of the chemical, structural and spectral properties of the plasmonic/molecular system being used is required. Specific techniques are needed to fully characterize optical near fields, temperature and hot carriers with spatial, energetic and/or temporal resolution. The timescales for all relevant physical and chemical processes can range from a few femtoseconds to milliseconds, which necessitates the use of time-resolved techniques for monitoring the underlying dynamics. In this Review, we focus on experimental techniques to tackle these challenges. We further outline the difficulties when going from the ensemble level to single-particle measurements. Finally, a thorough understanding of plasmon-assisted chemistry also requires a substantial joint experimental and theoretical effort.

Two-Colour Sum-Frequency Generation Spectroscopy Coupled to Plasmonics with the CLIO Free Electron Laser

Nonlinear plasmonics requires the use of high-intensity laser sources in the visible and near/mid-infrared spectral ranges to characterise the potential enhancement of the vibrational fingerprint of chemically functionalised nanostructured interfaces aimed at improving the molecular detection threshold in nanosensors. We used Two-Colour Sum-Frequency Generation (2C-SFG) nonlinear optical spectroscopy coupled to the European CLIO Free Electron Laser in order to highlight an energy transfer in organic and inorganic interfaces built on a silicon substrate. We evidence that a molecular pollutant, such as thiophenol molecules adsorbed on small gold metal nanospheres grafted on silicon, was detected at the monolayer scale in the 10 µm infrared spectral range, with increasing SFG intensity of three specific phenyl ring vibration modes reaching two magnitude orders from blue to green–yellow excitation wavelengths. This observation is related to a strong plasmonic coupling to the thiophenol molecules vibrations. The high level of gold nanospheres aggregation on the substrate allows us to dramatically increase the presence of hotspots, revealing collective plasmon modes based on strong local electric fields between the gold nanoparticles packed in close contact on the substrate. This configuration favors detection of Raman active vibration modes, for which 2C-SFG spectroscopy is particularly efficient in this unusual infrared spectral range.

A novel dibenzo[a,c]phenazine-based fluorescent probe for fast and selective detection of thiophenols in environmental water

A new dibenzo[a,c]phenazine-based fluorescent probe exhibits high selectivity and sensitivity towards thiophenols in environmental water.

Plasmonic Core-Shell Nanomaterials and their Applications in Spectroscopies

Plasmonic core-shell nanostructures have attracted considerable attention in the scientific community recently due to their highly tunable optical properties. Plasmon-enhanced spectroscopies are one of the main applications of plasmonic nanomaterials. When excited by an incident laser of suitable wavelength, strong and highly localized electromagnetic (EM) fields are generated around plasmonic nanomaterials, which can significantly boost excitation and/or radiation processes that amplify Raman, fluorescence, or nonlinear signals and improve spectroscopic sensitivity. Herein, recent developments in plasmon-enhanced spectroscopies utilizing core-shell nanostructures are reviewed, including shell-isolated nanoparticle-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SHINERS), plasmon-enhanced fluorescence spectroscopy, and plasmon-enhanced nonlinear spectroscopy.

Development of interface-/surface-specific two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy

Structures, kinetics, and chemical reactivities at interfaces and surfaces are key to understanding many of the fundamental scientific problems related to chemical, material, biological, and physical systems. These steady-state and dynamical properties at interfaces and surfaces require even-order techniques with time-resolution and spectral-resolution. Here, we develop fourth-order interface-/surface-specific two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy, including both two-dimensional electronic sum frequency generation (2D-ESFG) spectroscopy and two-dimensional electronic second harmonic generation (2D-ESHG) spectroscopy, for structural and dynamics studies of interfaces and surfaces. The 2D-ESFG and 2D-ESHG techniques were based on a unique laser source of broadband short-wave IR from 1200 nm to 2200 nm from a home-built optical parametric amplifier. With the broadband short-wave IR source, surface spectra cover most of the visible light region from 480 nm to 760 nm. A translating wedge-based identical pulses encoding system (TWINs) was introduced to generate a phase-locked pulse pair for coherent excitation in the 2D-ESFG and 2D-ESHG. As an example, we demonstrated surface dark states and their interactions of the surface states at p-type GaAs (001) surfaces with the 2D-ESFG and 2D-ESHG techniques. These newly developed time-resolved and interface-/surface-specific 2D spectroscopies would bring new information for structure and dynamics at interfaces and surfaces in the fields of the environment, materials, catalysis, and biology.

Plasmonic Gold Nanohole Arrays for Surface-Enhanced Sum Frequency Generation Detection

Nobel metal nanohole arrays have been used extensively in chemical and biological systems because of their fascinating optical properties. Gold nanohole arrays (Au NHAs) were prepared as surface plasmon polariton (SPP) generators for the surface-enhanced sum-frequency generation (SFG) detection of 4-Mercaptobenzonitrile (4-MBN). The angle-resolved reflectance spectra revealed that the Au NHAs have three angle-dependent SPP modes and two non-dispersive localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) modes under different structural orientation angles (sample surface orientation). An enhancement factor of ~30 was achieved when the SPP and LSPR modes of the Au NHAs were tuned to match the incident visible (VIS) and output SFG, respectively. This multi-mode matching strategy provided flexible controls and selective spectral windows for surface-enhanced measurements, and was especially useful in nonlinear spectroscopy where more than one light beam was involved. The structural orientation- and power-dependent performance demonstrated the potential of plasmonic NHAs in SFG and other nonlinear sensing applications, and provided a promising surface molecular analysis development platform.

Polarization- and Wavelength-Dependent Shell-Isolated-Nanoparticle-Enhanced Sum-Frequency Generation with High Sensitivity

Sum-frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy is a highly versatile tool for surface analysis. Improving the SFG intensity per molecule is important for observing low concentrations of surface species and intermediates in dynamic systems. Herein, Shell-Isolated-Nanoparticle-Enhanced SFG (SHINE-SFG) was used to probe a model substrate. The model substrate, p-mercaptobenzonitrile adsorbed on a Au film with SHINs deposited on top, provided an enhancement factor of up to 10^{5}. Through wavelength- and polarization-dependent SHINE-SFG spectroscopy, the majority of the signal enhancement was found to come from both plasmon enhanced emission and chemical enhancement mechanisms. A new enhancement regime, i.e., the nonlinear coupling of SHINE-SFG with difference frequency generation, was also identified. This novel mechanism provides insight into the enhancement of nonlinear coherent spectroscopies and a possible strategy for the rational design of enhancing substrates utilizing coupling processes.

Simple NIR-Emitting ESIPT Fluorescent Probe for Thiophenol with a Remarkable Stokes Shift and Its Application

Thiophenol as a highly toxic compound can harm the environment and living organisms and thus demands effective detection. In this work, we presented a near-infrared fluorescent probe (DAPH-DNP) for detecting thiophenol according to the ESIPT mechanism using 2,4-dinitrophenyl group as a recognition unit. This probe displayed specificity toward thiophenol over other related analytes. Meanwhile, there was good linearity between the relative fluorescence intensity of DAPH-DNP and the concentration of thiophenol in the range of 0-80 μM. This probe also showed a low detection limit of 3.8 × 10^-8 and a marked Stokes shift (192 nm). Further, this probe could be used for monitoring thiophenol in environmental water samples and imaging thiophenol in living cells, which indicated that this probe had a real application in the environment and living organisms.

A ratiometric fluorescent probe for visualization of thiophenol and its applications

Thiophenol has a broad application in agriculture and industry. However, thiophenol can harm to the environment and health for its high toxicity. Developing an effective method for detection of thiophenol in the field of environmental and biology is valuable. In this work, we construct a reaction-based ratiometric fluorescent probe (E)-4-(2-(7-(diethylamino)-2-oxo-2H-chromen-3-yl)vinyl)-1-(4-(2,4-dinitrophenoxy)benzyl)pyridin-1-ium bromide (DCVP-DNP) for probing thiophenol in environment and cells by employing (E)-7-(diethylamino)-3-(2-(pyridin-4-yl)vinyl)-2H-chromen-2-one (DCVP) as the fluorophore and 2,4-dinitrophenyl (DNP) ether as the recognition group for the first time. The probe has high selectivity for thiophenol though thiophenol-triggered nucleophilic substitution reaction. In addition, the ratio of emission intensities of the probe has linearly with thiophenol concentration in the range of 0-65 μM and the detection limit of thiophenol is as low as 4.8 × 10^-8 M. Moreover, the probe can not only be applied for detection of thiophenol in water samples, but also image thiophenol in living cells, suggesting its potential application in environment and biological system.

The Prevailing Role of Hotspots in Plasmon-Enhanced Sum-Frequency Generation Spectroscopy

The plasmonic amplification of nonlinear vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy (SFG) at the surfaces of gold nanoparticles is systematically investigated by tuning the incident visible wavelength. The SFG spectra of dodecanethiol-coated gold nanoparticles chemically deposited on silicon are recorded for 20 visible wavelengths. The vibrational intensities of thiol methyl stretches extracted from the experimental measurements vary with the visible color of the SFG process and show amplification by coupling to plasmon excitation. Because the enhancement is maximal in the orange-red region rather than in the green, as expected from the dipolar model for surface plasmon resonances, it is attributed mostly to hotspots created in particle multimers, in spite of their low surface densities. A simple model accounting for the longitudinal surface plasmons of multimers allows the recovery of the experimental spectral dispersion.

Surface curvature-dependent adsorption and aggregation of fluorescein isothiocyanate on gold nanoparticles

The interaction between metallic nanoparticles and fluorescent molecules and its influence on the optical properties of the particles/molecules have been intensively investigated because of their biology and sensing applications. Here, we studied the adsorption and aggregation of a commonly used dye, fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC), on gold nanoparticles of various diameters. It was observed that the adsorption of FITC on relatively large gold nanoparticles (≥15 nm in diameter) induced quenching in the two-photon fluorescence (TPF) emission from the FITC molecules, while smaller-sized gold nanoparticles (1.6 nm) had no such effect. This difference was interpreted by the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between the FITC molecules and the larger gold nanoparticles. At the same time, it was observed that the ratio of TPF quenching was notably higher than the ratio of the FITC molecules chemically adsorbed on the large gold particles. This unexpected observation revealed that the aggregation-induced fluorescence quenching also contributed significantly to the attenuation of the TPF emission. Time-dependent TPF attenuation during the interaction of FITC and the larger gold nanoparticles was recorded and used to confirm this interpretation. With this experimental evidence, a clear picture of the interaction of the FITC molecules on the gold surface was presented: FITC molecules chemically adsorbed on the small gold nanoparticles. However, the relatively larger surface curvature hindered the aggregation of the FITC molecules on the small gold nanoparticles. On the surface of the larger gold nanoparticles, both adsorption and aggregation occured. The influence of the surface curvature on the interfacial structure of the adsorbed molecules on nanoparticles was discussed.

Sum-Frequency Generation Spectroscopy of Plasmonic Nanomaterials: A Review

We report on the recent scientific research contribution of non-linear optics based on Sum-Frequency Generation (SFG) spectroscopy as a surface probe of the plasmonic properties of materials. In this review, we present a general introduction to the fundamentals of SFG spectroscopy, a well-established optical surface probe used in various domains of physical chemistry, when applied to plasmonic materials. The interest of using SFG spectroscopy as a complementary tool to surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy in order to probe the surface chemistry of metallic nanoparticles is illustrated by taking advantage of the optical amplification induced by the coupling to the localized surface plasmon resonance. A short review of the first developments of SFG applications in nanomaterials is presented to span the previous emergent literature on the subject. Afterwards, the emphasis is put on the recent developments and applications of the technique over the five last years in order to illustrate that SFG spectroscopy coupled to plasmonic nanomaterials is now mature enough to be considered a promising research field of non-linear plasmonics.

A water-soluble and highly specific fluorescent probe for imaging thiophenols in living cells and zebrafish

A water-soluble and highly specific fluorescent probe was developed to track thiophenols in living cells and zebrafish.

Controlled Growth and Grafting of High-Density Au Nanoparticles on Zinc Oxide Thin Films by Photo-Deposition

The integration of high-purity nano-objects on substrates remains a great challenge for addressing scaling-up issues in nanotechnology. For instance, grafting gold nanoparticles (NPs) on zinc oxide films, a major step process for catalysis or photovoltaic applications, still remains difficult to master. We report a modified photodeposition (P-D) approach that achieves tight control of the NPs size (7.5 ± 3 nm), shape (spherical), purity, and high areal density (3500 ± 10 NPs/μm²) on ZnO films. This deposition method is also compatible with large ZnO surface areas. Combining electronic microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements, we demonstrate that growth occurs primarily in confined spaces (between the grains of the ZnO film), resulting in gold NPs embedded within the ZnO surface grains thus establishing a unique NPs/surface arrangement. This modified P-D process offers a powerful method to control nanoparticle morphology and areal density and to achieve strong Au interaction with the metal oxide substrate. This work also highlights the key role of ZnO surface morphology to control the NPs density and their size distribution. Furthermore, we experimentally demonstrate an increase of the ZnO photocatalytic activity due to high densities of Au NPs, opening applications for the decontamination of water or the photoreduction of water for hydrogen production.

Theory of Linear and Nonlinear Surface-Enhanced Vibrational Spectroscopies

The vibrational spectroscopy of molecules adsorbed on metal nanoparticles can be enhanced by many orders of magnitude so that the detection and identification of single molecules are possible. The enhancement of most linear and nonlinear vibrational spectroscopies has been demonstrated. In this review, we discuss theoretical approaches to understanding linear and nonlinear surface-enhanced vibrational spectroscopies. A unified description of enhancement mechanisms classified as either electromagnetic or chemical in nature is presented. Emphasis is placed on understanding the spectral changes necessary for interpretation of linear and nonlinear surface-enhanced vibrational spectroscopies.

Ultrafast and nonlinear surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Ultrafast surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has the potential to study molecular dynamics near plasmonic surfaces to better understand plasmon-mediated chemical reactions such as plasmonically-enhanced photocatalytic or photovoltaic processes. This review discusses the combination of ultrafast Raman spectroscopic techniques with plasmonic substrates for high temporal resolution, high sensitivity, and high spatial resolution vibrational spectroscopy. First, we introduce background information relevant to ultrafast SERS: the mechanisms of surface enhancement in Raman scattering, the characterization of plasmonic materials with ultrafast techniques, and early complementary techniques to study molecule-plasmon interactions. We then discuss recent advances in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopies with ultrafast pulses with a focus on the study of molecule-plasmon coupling and molecular dynamics with high sensitivity. We also highlight the challenges faced by this field by the potential damage caused by concentrated, highly energetic pulsed fields in plasmonic hotspots, and finally the potential for future ultrafast SERS studies.

Green synthesis of a benzothiazole based ‘turn-on’ type fluorimetric probe and its use for the selective detection of thiophenols in environmental samples and living cells

A highly sensitive ESIPT based fluorescent chemodosimeter (LOD 3.3 ppb) has been synthesized using “green” chemical route and employed to detect thiophenol in environmental samples and living cells.

Localized surface plasmon resonances in nanostructures to enhance nonlinear vibrational spectroscopies: towards an astonishing molecular sensitivity

Vibrational transitions contain some of the richest fingerprints of molecules and materials, providing considerable physicochemical information. Vibrational transitions can be characterized by different spectroscopies, and alternatively by several imaging techniques enabling to reach sub-microscopic spatial resolution. In a quest to always push forward the detection limit and to lower the number of needed vibrational oscillators to get a reliable signal or imaging contrast, surface plasmon resonances (SPR) are extensively used to increase the local field close to the oscillators. Another approach is based on maximizing the collective response of the excited vibrational oscillators through molecular coherence. Both features are often naturally combined in vibrational nonlinear optical techniques. In this frame, this paper reviews the main achievements of the two most common vibrational nonlinear optical spectroscopies, namely surface-enhanced sum-frequency generation (SE-SFG) and surface-enhanced coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (SE-CARS). They can be considered as the nonlinear counterpart and/or combination of the linear surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) techniques, respectively, which are themselves a branching of the conventional IR and spontaneous Raman spectroscopies. Compared to their linear equivalent, those nonlinear vibrational spectroscopies have proved to reach higher sensitivity down to the single molecule level, opening the way to astonishing perspectives for molecular analysis.

Analyzing the vibrational signatures of thiophenol adsorbed on small gold clusters by DFT calculations

Using density functional theory, we calculate the IR and Raman signatures of the thiophenol (TP) molecule adsorbed on gold clusters by mimicking the different types of adsorption sites, and we analyze these signatures by using advanced tools implemented into the pyvib2 program. First, we follow the evolution of the vibrational normal modes from the isolated TP molecule to those of TP adsorbed on different clusters to highlight the influence of the site of adsorption on the vibrational motions. The use of the overlap matrix between the modes enables mode permutations, mode mixings, and mode splittings to be highlighted, all of which depend not only on the adsorption but also on the type of cluster and its symmetry. Second, the IR and Raman signatures were analyzed by using group coupling matrices and atomic contribution patterns based on the Hug decomposition scheme. Key results include 1) the fact that Raman spectroscopy is more sensitive than IR spectroscopy with respect to the nature of the coordination site, 2) an IR criterion that distinguishes between on-top coordination (onefold coordinated) with respect to the bridge (twofold coordinated) and hexagonal close-packed hollow site coordination (threefold coordinated), and 3) the best agreement to the experimental Raman spectrum with regard to signatures in the 500 to 1200 cm(-1) region is obtained for bridged, twofold coordination.

BODIPY based colorimetric fluorescent probe for selective thiophenol detection: theoretical and experimental studies

A BODIPY-based selective thiophenol probe capable of discriminating aliphatic thiols is reported. The fluorescence off-on effect upon reaction with thiol is elucidated with theoretical calculations. The sensing of thiophenol is associated with a color change from red to yellow and 63-fold enhancement in green fluorescence. Application of the probe for selective thiophenol detection is demonstrated by live cell imaging.

A multiscale description of molecular adsorption on gold nanoparticles by nonlinear optical spectroscopy

Nonlinear optical Sum and Difference-Frequency spectroscopies are used to probe and model the surface of thiophenol-functionalised gold nanoparticles grafted on a Si(100) substrate through two different silanization procedures. By scanning the [980-1100 cm(-1)] infrared spectral range with the CLIO Free Electron Laser, ring deformation vibrations of adsorbed thiophenol are investigated. Quantitative data analysis addresses three levels of organization: microscopic, nanoscopic and molecular. Grafting with p-aminophenyl-trimethoxysilane shows an increase of around 40% in surface density of nanoparticles (N(s)) as compared to 3-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane. The relative amplitudes of the resonant and nonresonant contributions to the SFG and DFG spectra are discussed in terms of N(s), Fresnel reflectivity factors and local amplification of the nonlinear signals by coupling to the surface plasmon of the particles. They are shown to quantitatively scale with N(s), as measured by atomic force microscopy. Vibration mode assignment is performed through a critical analysis of literature data on IR and Raman spectroscopies coupled to DFT calculations, for which a methodology specific to molecules adsorbed on gold atoms is discussed.