Assessing the effect of different pH maintenance situations on bacterial SERS spectra

Phenotyping of bacteria with vibrational spectroscopy has caught much attention in bacteria-related research. It is known that many factors could affect this process. Among them, solution pH maintenance is crucial, yet its impact on the bacterial SERS spectra is surprisingly neglected. In this work, we focused on two situations related to pH maintenance: the effect of the same buffer on the SERS spectra of bacteria under different pH values, and the influence of different buffers on the SERS spectra of bacteria under the same pH value. Specifically, Britton-Robison (BR) buffer was used to evaluate the effect of pH value on bacteria SERS spectra thanks to its wide pH range. Four different buffers, namely BR buffer, acetate buffer, phosphate buffer, and carbonate buffer, were used to illustrate the impact of buffer types on SERS spectra of bacteria. The results showed that the intensity and number of characteristic peaks of the SERS spectra of Gram-negative (G -) bacteria changed more significantly than Gram-positive (G +) bacteria with the change of pH value. Furthermore, compared with phosphate buffer and carbonate buffer, BR buffer could bring more characteristic SERS bands with better reproducibility, but slightly inferior to acetate buffer. In conclusion, the influence of the pH and types of the buffer on the SERS spectra of bacteria are worthy of further discussion.