Nanostructured Silver Dendrites for Photon-induced Cysteine Dimerization

Under a controlled adsorption environment, L-cysteine molecules can be chemically adsorbed to the dendritic silver (Ag-D) surface by electrochemical methods with different functional groups. It is verified by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy that under alkaline conditions (pH = 13.50), the two functional groups of thiol and acid are simultaneously adsorbed on the surface of Ag-D, while NH is far from the surface; under acidic conditions (pH = 1.67), adsorption behavior suggests that both NH and COO are oriented toward the Ag-D surface, and that SH is far from the surface. The structure of L-cysteine adsorption under acidic conditions can be further verified by the addition of an L-cysteine molecule through light-induced coupling reaction to form cystine. Finally, in-situ two-dimensional Raman scattering spectroscopy confirmed the feasibility and uniformity of the coupling reaction.