Versatile Silver Nanoparticles-Based SERS Substrate with High Sensitivity and Stability

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering has developed into a mature analytical technique useful in various applications; however, the reproducible fabrication of a portable SERS substrate with high sensitivity and good uniformity is still an ongoing pursuit. Reported herein is a rapid fabrication method of an inexpensive SERS substrate that enables sub-nanomolar detection of molecular analytes. The SERS substrate is obtained by application of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs)-based ink in precisely design patterns with the aid of an in-house assembled printer equipped with a user-fillable pen. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations show a 155-times Ag NP electric field enhancement for Ag nanoparticle pairs with particle spacing of 2 nm. By comparing the SERS performance of SERS substrate made with different support matrices and fabrication methods, the PET-printed substrate shows optimal performance, with an estimated sensitivity enhancement factor of 107. The quantitative analysis of rhodamine 6G absorbed on optimized SERS substrate exhibits a good linear relationship, with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.9998, between the SERS intensity at 610 cm−1 and the concentration in the range of 0.1 nM—1μM. The practical low limit detection of R6G is 10 pM. The optimized SERS substrates show good stability (at least one month) and have been effectively tested in the detection of cancer drugs, including doxorubicin and metvan.

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Filter paper based SERS substrate for the direct detection of analytes in complex matrices

The Analyst ◽

10.1039/d0an02103b ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Harmke Susanna Siebe ◽

Qinglu Chen ◽

Xinyuan Li ◽

Yikai Xu ◽

Wesley Browne ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Raman Spectroscopy ◽

Chemical Analysis ◽

Direct Detection ◽

High Sensitivity ◽

Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy ◽

Sers Substrate ◽

Analytical Technique ◽

Surface Enhanced ◽

Surface Enhanced Raman ◽

Molecular Specificity

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is an emerging analytical technique for chemical analysis, due to its combination of short measurement time, high sensitivity and molecular specificity. However, the application of SERS...

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Reusable Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Substrates Made of Silicon Nanowire Array Coated with Silver Nanoparticles Fabricated by Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching and Photonic Reduction

Nanomaterials ◽

10.3390/nano9111531 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (11) ◽

pp. 1531 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Shi Bai ◽

Yongjun Du ◽

Chunyan Wang ◽

Jian Wu ◽

Koji Sugioka

Keyword(s):

Silver Nanoparticles ◽

Chemical Etching ◽

Silicon Nanowire ◽

Nanowire Array ◽

Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy ◽

Sers Substrate ◽

Silicon Nanowire Array ◽

Surface Enhanced ◽

Surface Enhanced Raman ◽

Metal Assisted Chemical Etching

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has advanced over the last four decades and has become an attractive tool for highly sensitive analysis in fields such as medicine and environmental monitoring. Recently, there has been an urgent demand for reusable and long-lived SERS substrates as a means of reducing the costs associated with this technique To this end, we fabricated a SERS substrate comprising a silicon nanowire array coated with silver nanoparticles, using metal-assisted chemical etching followed by photonic reduction. The morphology and growth mechanism of the SERS substrate were carefully examined and the performance of the fabricated SERS substrate was tested using rhodamine 6G and dopamine hydrochloride. The data show that this new substrate provides an enhancement factor of nearly 1 × 108. This work demonstrates that a silicon nanowire array coated with silver nanoparticles is sensitive and sufficiently robust to allow repeated reuse. These results suggest that this newly developed technique could allow SERS to be used in many commercial applications.

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In-Situ Grown Silver Nanoparticles on Nonwoven Fabrics Based on Mussel-Inspired Polydopamine for Highly Sensitive SERS Carbaryl Pesticides Detection

Nanomaterials ◽

10.3390/nano9030384 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 384 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Zhiliang Zhang ◽

Tiantian Si ◽

Jun Liu ◽

Guowei Zhou

Keyword(s):

Silver Nanoparticles ◽

Collection Efficiency ◽

High Sensitivity ◽

Sers Substrate ◽

Analytical Sensitivity ◽

Sers Substrates ◽

Rapid Sampling ◽

Highly Sensitive ◽

Highly Sensitive Detection

The rapid sampling and efficient collection of target molecules from a real-world surface is fairly crucial for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) to detect trace pesticide residues in the environment and in agriculture fields. In this work, a versatile approach was exploited to fabricate a flexible SERS substrate for highly sensitive detection of carbaryl pesticides, using in-situ grown silver nanoparticles (AgNPs)on non-woven (NW) fabric surfaces based on mussel-inspired polydopamine (PDA) molecules. The obtained NW@PDA@AgNPs fabrics showed extremely sensitive and reproducible SERS signals toward crystal violet (CV) molecules, and the detection limit was as low as 1.0 × 10−12 M. More importantly, these NW@PDA@AgNPs fabrics could be directly utilized as flexible SERS substrates for the rapid extraction and detection of trace carbaryl pesticides from various fruit surfaces through a simple swabbing approach. It was identified that the detection limits of carbaryl residues from apple, orange, and banana surfaces were approximately decreased to 4.02 × 10−12, 6.04 × 10−12, and 5.03 × 10−12 g, respectively, demonstrating high sensitivity and superior reliability. These flexible substrates could not only drastically increase the collection efficiency from multifarious irregular-shaped matrices, but also greatly enhance analytical sensitivity and reliability for carbaryl pesticides. The fabricated flexible and multifunctional SERS substrates would have great potential to trace pesticide residue detection in the environment and bioscience fields.

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Preparation of Hydrophobic Film by Electrospinning for Rapid SERS Detection of Trace Triazophos

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s20154120 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (15) ◽

pp. 4120

Author(s):

Fei Shao ◽

Jiaying Cao ◽

Ye Ying ◽

Ying Liu ◽

Dan Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Hot Spots ◽

Large Scale ◽

Limit Of Detection ◽

Small Region ◽

Sers Substrate ◽

Ag Nps ◽

Electrospinning Technique ◽

Heterocyclic Molecules ◽

Surface Enhanced Raman ◽

Sers Detection

For real application, it is an urgent demand to fabricate stable and flexible surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates with high enhancement factors in a large-scale and facile way. Herein, by using the electrospinning technique, a hydrophobic and flexible poly(styrene-co-butadiene) (SB) fibrous membrane is obtained, which is beneficial for modification of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) colloid in a small region and then formation of more “hot spots” by drying; the final SERS substrate is designated as Ag/SB. Hydrophobic Ag/SB can efficiently capture heterocyclic molecules into the vicinity of hot spots of Ag NPs. Such Ag/SB films are used to quantitatively detect trace triazophos residue on fruit peels or in the juice, and the limit of detection (LOD) of 2.5 × 10−8 M is achieved. Ag/SB films possess a capability to resist heat. As a case, 6-mercaptopurine (6MP) that just barely dissolves in 90 °C water is picked for conducting Ag/SB-film-based experiments.

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Nanocrystalline cellulose as reducing- and stabilizing agent in the synthesis of silver nanoparticles: Application as a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate

Surfaces and Interfaces ◽

10.1016/j.surfin.2018.06.004 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 13 ◽

pp. 1-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Segun A. Ogundare ◽

Werner E. van Zyl

Keyword(s):

Silver Nanoparticles ◽

Raman Scattering ◽

Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering ◽

Nanocrystalline Cellulose ◽

Sers Substrate ◽

Stabilizing Agent ◽

Surface Enhanced ◽

Surface Enhanced Raman ◽

Enhanced Raman Scattering

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Rapid label-free SERS detection of foodborne pathogenic bacteria based on hafnium ditelluride-Au nanocomposites

Journal of Innovative Optical Health Sciences ◽

10.1142/s1793545820410047 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (05) ◽

pp. 2041004 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Yang Li ◽

Yanxian Guo ◽

Binggang Ye ◽

Zhengfei Zhuang ◽

Peilin Lan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Pathogenic Bacteria ◽

Limit Of Detection ◽

Principal Component ◽

High Sensitivity ◽

Chemical Mechanism ◽

Sers Substrate ◽

Label Free ◽

Label Free Detection ◽

Surface Enhanced Raman ◽

Foodborne Pathogenic Bacteria

Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials have captured an increasing attention in biophotonics owing to their excellent optical features. Herein, 2D hafnium ditelluride (HfTe[Formula: see text], a new member of transition metal tellurides, is exploited to support gold nanoparticles fabricating HfTe2-Au nanocomposites. The nanohybrids can serve as novel 2D surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate for the label-free detection of analyte with high sensitivity and reproducibility. Chemical mechanism originated from HfTe2 nanosheets and the electromagnetic enhancement induced by the hot spots on the nanohybrids may largely contribute to the superior SERS effect of HfTe2-Au nanocomposites. Finally, HfTe2-Au nanocomposites are utilized for the label-free SERS analysis of foodborne pathogenic bacteria, which realize the rapid and ultrasensitive Raman test of Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella with the limit of detection of 10 CFU/mL and the maximum Raman enhancement factor up to [Formula: see text]. Combined with principal component analysis, HfTe2-Au-based SERS analysis also completes the bacterial classification without extra treatment.

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Facile Fabrication of Micro/Nano Hierarchical SERS Sensor via Anisotropic Etching and Electrochemical Treatment for Malachite Green Detection

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app9235237 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (23) ◽

pp. 5237

Author(s):

Chu-Yu Huang ◽

Chih-Hung Chien

Keyword(s):

Malachite Green ◽

Fem Simulation ◽

High Sensitivity ◽

Practical Method ◽

Electrochemical Treatment ◽

Sers Substrate ◽

Sers Substrates ◽

Surface Enhanced Raman ◽

Nanostructured Gold ◽

Facile Fabrication

We propose a facile method to produce micro/nano hierarchical surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) active substrates using simple steps and inexpensive costs. The proposed SERS substrate is a silicon pyramid array covered by a nanostructured gold film (AuNS @ SiPA). Through finite element method (FEM) simulation, we showed that many strong local electric field enhancements (hot spots) were formed between the nano-gap of gold nanostructures. In addition, the micron-scale pyramid structure not only increases the sensing surface area of the sensor, but also helps trap light. By combining these micro and nano structures, the proposed micro/nano hierarchical SERS sensor exhibited high sensitivity. Experimental results confirmed that the AuNS @ SiPA substrate has high sensitivity. The SERS signal enhancement factor obtained from the Rhodamine 6G (R6G) probe molecules was as high as 1 × 107 and the SERS substrates were found to be able to detect a very low concentration of 0.01 nM malachite green (MG) solution. Therefore, this study provides a novel and practical method for fabricating SERS substrates that can facilitate the use of SERS in medicine, food safety, and biotechnology.

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An in situ approach for facile fabrication of robust and scalable SERS substrates

Nanoscale ◽

10.1039/c4nr01712a ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 6 (13) ◽

pp. 7232-7236 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Yi-Chung Wang ◽

Joseph S. DuChene ◽

Fengwei Huo ◽

Wei David Wei

Keyword(s):

High Sensitivity ◽

Sers Substrate ◽

Biological Detection ◽

Sers Substrates ◽

Widespread Implementation ◽

Surface Enhanced ◽

Surface Enhanced Raman ◽

Facile Fabrication ◽

Enhanced Raman Scattering

The widespread implementation of surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) techniques for chemical and biological detection requires an inexpensive, yet robust SERS substrate with high sensitivity and reproducibility.

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