Surface-enchanced Raman

Since surface-enchanced Raman scattering spectroscopy is still a relatively new technique, its theory and experimental conditions have not yet been completed. Much experimental and theoretical work will have to be undertaken to enable the data to be evaluated more precisely and more quantitatively. Only then will it be possible to assume that this technique might be ranked with other physical techniques suitable for structural studies such as normal solution Raman or nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrophotometry. The two latter techniques can provide information about the structure of molecules at the level of single atoms, but to carry out solution Raman or NMR spectrometry experiments relatively very high concentrations of the compound are needed. SERS or SERRS could be one way of overcoming this problem, which is particularly inconvenient in the case of analysis of most biomacromolecules by physical or physico-chemical techniques. 

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