Label-free in situ surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) monitoring of reactions catalyzed by small gold nanoparticles using rationally designed plasmonic superstructures is presented. Catalytic and SERS activities are integrated into a single bifunctional 3D superstructure comprising small gold satellites self-assembled onto a large shell-isolated gold core, which eliminates photocatalytic side reactions.

The design of a portable Raman/SERS‐LFA reader with line illumination using a custom‐made fiber optic probe for rapid, quantitative, and ultrasensitive point‐of‐care testing (POCT) is presented. The pregnancy hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is detectable in clinical samples within only 2–5 s down to approximately 1.6 mIU mL −1 . This acquisition time is several orders of magnitude shorter than those of existing approaches requiring expensive Raman instrumentation, and the method is 15‐times more sensitive than a commercially available lateral flow assay (LFA) as the gold standard. The SERS‐LFA technology paves the way for affordable, quantitative, and ultrasensitive POCT with multiplexing potential in real‐world applications, ranging from clinical chemistry to food and environmental analysis as well as drug and biowarfare agent testing.

Noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) are the most commonly employed plasmonic substrates in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) experiments. Computer simulations show that monomers of Ag and Au nanocrystals ("spherical" NPs) do not exhibit a notable plasmonic enhancement, i.e., they are essentially non-SERS-active. However, in experiments, SERS enhanced by spherical NP colloids has been frequently reported. This implies that the monomers do not have strong SERS activity, but detectable enhancement should more or less be there. Because of the gap between theory and practice, it is important to demonstrate experimentally how SERS-active the metal colloid actually is and, in case a SERS signal is observed, where it originates from. In particular the aggregation of the colloid, induced by high centrifugal forces in washing steps or due to a harsh ionic environment of the suspension medium, should be controlled since it is the very high SERS activity of NP clusters which dominates the overall SERS signal of the colloid. We report here the experimental evaluation of the SERS activity of 80 nm Au and Ag NP monomers. Instead of showing fancy nanostructures and super SERS enhancement, we present the method on how to obtain negative experimental data. In this approach, no SERS signal was obtained from the colloid with a Raman reporter on the metal surface when the NPs were encapsulated carefully within a thick silica shell. Without silica encapsulation, if a very low centrifugation speed is used for the washing steps, only a negligible SERS signal can be detected even at very high NP concentrations. In contrast, strong SERS signals can be detected when the NPs are suspended in acidic solutions. These results indicate that Au and Ag NP monomers essentially exhibit no SERS activity of practical relevance.

Synapses are fundamental building blocks controlling and modulating the ‘behavior’ of brain networks. How their structural composition, most notably their quantitative morphology underlie their computational properties remains rather unclear, particularly in humans. Here, excitatory synaptic boutons (SBs) in layer 4 (L4) of the temporal lobe neocortex (TLN) were quantitatively investigated. Biopsies from epilepsy surgery were used for fine-scale and tomographic electron microscopy (EM) to generate 3D-reconstructions of SBs. Particularly, the size of active zones (AZs) and that of the three functionally defined pools of synaptic vesicles (SVs) were quantified. SBs were comparatively small (~2.50 μm2), with a single AZ (~0.13 µm2); preferentially established on spines. SBs had a total pool of ~1800 SVs with strikingly large readily releasable (~20), recycling (~80) and resting pools (~850). Thus, human L4 SBs may act as ‘amplifiers’ of signals from the sensory periphery, integrate, synchronize and modulate intra- and extracortical synaptic activity.