Use of a hydrogel polymer for reproducible surface enhanced Raman optical activity (SEROA)This article is part of a ChemComm web-based themed issue on Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy.Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Additional experimental information and Table S1 listing band assignments. See DOI: 10.1039/c0cc05284a

We present surface enhanced Raman optical activity (SEROA), as well as Raman, SERS and ROA, spectra of d- and l-ribose. By employing a gel forming polyacrylic acid to control colloid aggregation and associated birefringent artefacts we observe the first definitive proof of SEROA through measurement of mirror image bands for the two enantiomers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]