Study of Langmuir-Blodgett phospholipidic films deposited on surface enhanced Raman scattering active gold nanoparticle monolayers

Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) was used to study phospholipid monolayers transferred by the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique to SERS active substrates. These substrates, which were constituted of gold colloidal nanoparticles bound to polysilane films grafted onto glass plates, showed a uniform and homogeneous layer with strong interacting particles as revealed from UV-visible extinction spectra and atomic force microscopy images. Laser excitation at 632.8 nm within the red part of the localized surface plasmon resonance leads to intense and reproducible SERS spectra of trans-1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)ethylene (BPE). From SERS measurements at different pHs it was possible to determine the apparent pK(a) of BPE adsorbed on gold-coated silanized substrates in the absence and presence of one LB monomolecular layer of phospholipids. These SERS titrations allowed the estimation of the pH at the metal-LB film interface. (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.