ON THE INFLUENCE OF AN H-ORC ON SERS

Experiments were conducted in an effort to determine the reason(s) for the increase of SERS caused by hydrogen evolution prior to performing an oxidation-reduction treatment of silver in 1 M KCl. The temporal evolution of SERS of the O-H stretch mode of water and the Ag0-Cl- vibrational mode suggests that hydrogen evolution followed by an ORC (referred to as H-ORC) increases the lifetime of SERS-active sites. Several other effects of H-ORC on SERS are identified. It is concluded that more than one process must be produced by H-ORC in order to account for all of the changes in SERS. © 1990.