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The original goal of this study was the employment of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for the analysis of real cocaine samples (containing adulterants) on composite Au-TiO2 nanomaterials to achieve low detection limits suitable for the analysis of illicit drugs and controlled substances and to exploit the photodegradation activity of TiO2 to recycle the SERS substrate for repeated analyses. The photodegradation (self-cleaning) effects of the Au-TiO2 composite nanomaterials by ultraviolet (UV) radiation are known. These effects were investigated on large-area SERS substrates immersed in the TiO2 nanoparticle aqueous suspension. The cocaine samples were measured on electrochemically gold-plated platinum targets. Surprisingly, the intensity of SERS spectra of the pure cocaine did not change after immersion in a suspension of TiO2 under UV irradiation. However, for some real cocaine samples, the overall intensity of the SERS spectra was even higher after the treatment by TiO2 and UV radiation as co...

Recent advances in nanotechnology have opened a lot of new possibilities for nanomaterials application in wide variety of industrial, pharmaceutical, medicinal and environmental applications. This review aims to description of various Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR)-based spectroscopic techniques suitable to characterize (i) different types of nanomaterials and (ii) various macroscopic samples at their nanoscale. In the introductory section, nanomaterials are classified according to their crucial properties, i.e. chemical composition, size and surface morphology. Application of traditional FTIR techniques, such as Attenuated Total Reflection (ATR), Diffuse Reflection (DRIFT) and infrared micro (spectro)scopy, for characterization of nanomaterials and nanostructures is compared with novel optical nanoscopic techniques derived from scanning probe microscopy which enable to overcome the diffraction limit and to characterize nanomaterials at molecular scale.