Development of a Temperature Controlled Cell for Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for in situ Detection of Gases

Abstract: This work describes a master’s thesis in engineering physics at Umeå University carried out during the spring semester of 2014. In the thesis the student has constructed and tested a temperature controlled cell for cooling/heating of surface-enhanced-Raman-spectroscopy (SERS) substrates for rapid detection of volatile substances. The thesis was carried out at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) in Umeå, Sweden. A Linkam Scientific Instruments TS1500 cell was equipped with a Peltier element for cooling/heating and a thermistor temperature sensor. A control system was constructed, based on an Arduino Uno microcontroller board and a pulse-width-modulated (PWM) H-bridge motor driver to control the Peltier element using a proportional-integral (PI) control algorithm. The temperature controlled cell was able to regulate the temperature of a SERS substrate within -15 to +110 °C and maintain the temperature over prolonged periods at ±0.22 °C of the set point temperature. Gas phase of 2-chloro-2-(difluoromethoxy)-1,1,1-trifluoro-ethane (isoflurane) was flowed through the cell and SERS spectra were collected at different temperatures and concentrations. This test showed that the signal is increased when the substrate is cooled and reversibly decreased when the substrate was heated. Keywords: temperature control, Raman scattering, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy SERS, SERS substrate, volatile substances, Peltier module, thermistor, PWM, H-bridge, PI(D) control.