Monitoring the inorganic chemical reaction by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy: A case of Fe³⁺ to Fe²⁺ conversion.

Monitoring the process of organic chemical reactions to study the kinetics by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is currently of immense interest. However, monitoring the inorganic chemical reaction is still an extremely difficulty for researchers. This study exactly focused on the monitor of inorganic chemical reaction. Capillary coated with silver nanoparticles was introduced, which was an efficient platform for monitoring reactions with SERS due to the advantages of sensitivity and excellent reproducibility. The photoreduction of [Fe(phen)3](3+) to [Fe(phen)3](2+) was used as model reaction to demonstrated the feasibility of SERS monitoring inorganic chemical reaction by involving in metal-organic complexes. Moreover, the preliminary implementation demonstrated that the kinetics of photoreduction can be real-time monitored by in situ using the SERS technique on a single constructed capillary, which may be useful for the practical application of SERS technique.