SERS study on adenine using a Ag/poly(t-butylacrylate) nanocomposite.

Enhancement of Raman signals of the nucleobase adenine on an Ag based composite was studied using the 1064 nm laser line. The composite comprise emulsions of Ag nanoparticles encapsulated in poly(t-butylacrylate) (PtBA) beads that act as substrate for the Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) of adenine. For this system, Raman enhancement was observed for the ring-stretching vibrational mode of adenine after aggregation of the Ag/poly(t-butylacrylate) emulsion and isolation of the solid composite. This is a convenient and alternative analytical approach to SERS monitoring of solutions of adenine over the more common use of pure Ag colloids. As a consequence, this research contributes to develop innovative studies on DNA fragments using polymeric platforms that can act as highly sensitive SERS substrates.