Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has been considered as a promising sensing technique to detect low-level analytes. However, its practical application was hindered owing to the lack of uniform SERS substrates for ultrasensitive and reproducible assay. Herein, inspired by the natural cactus structure, we developed a cactus-like 3D nanostructure with uniform and high-density hotspots for ...

Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) coupled with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has gained tremendous popularity in the study of various complex systems. However, the detection of hydrophobic analytes is difficult, and the specificity still needs to be improved. In this study, a SERS-active non-aqueous silver sol which could activate the analytes to produce rich and stable spectral feat...

In this study, we report on a novel approach for the label-free and species-specific detection of the plant pathogen Phytophthora ramorum from real samples using surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). In this context, we consider the entire analysis chain including sample preparation, DNA isolation, amplification and hybridization on SERS substrate-immobilized adenine-free capture probes. Th...

Silver nanostructures have been considered as promising substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) with extremely high sensitivity. The applications, however, are hindered by the facts that their morphology can be easily destroyed due to the low melting points (~100 °C) and their surfaces are readily oxidized/sulfured in air, thus losing the SERS activity. It was found that wrappin...

A highly sensitive surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate with particle-film sandwich geometry has been developed for the label free detection of folic acid (FA) and methotrexate (MTX). In this sandwich structure, the bottom layer is composed of a copper foil decorated with silver nanoparticles synthesized by the galvanic displacement reaction, and top layer is constituted by silver...

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is ideally suited for probing and mapping surface species and incipient phases on fuel cell electrodes because of its high sensitivity and surface-selectivity, potentially offering insights into the mechanisms of chemical and energy transformation processes. In particular, bimetal nanostructures of coinage metals (Au, Ag, and Cu) have attracted much atte...

We investigated interfacial behaviors of erlotinib (EL) on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) by means of Raman spectroscopy. The adsorption reactions and structures of EL on AuNP surfaces were examined by UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Density functional theory calculations were performed to estimate the energetic stabilities of the drug-AuNP composites. A...

We report a novel approach for fabricating gold nanostar-functionalized substrates for highly sensitive surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)-based chemical sensing. Gold nanostars immobilized on a gold substrate via a Raman silent organic tether serve as the SERS substrate, and facilitate the chemical sensing of analytes that can either be chemisorbed or physisorbed on the nanostars. Our ...

There is a strong correlation between the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) enhancement factor (EF), the excitation wavelength, and the feature properties (composition, size, geometry, and analytes). The prediction of the EF of specific substrates, crucial to the quantitative SERS detection, is however still very difficult. The present work presents smart liquid SERS substrates consistin...

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a surface-sensitive vibrational spectroscopy that allows Raman spectroscopy on a single molecular scale. Here, we present a review of SERS from molecular junctions, in which a single molecule or molecules are made to have contact from the top to the bottom of metal surfaces. The molecular junctions are nice platforms for SERS as well as transport meas...