Creatinine
level in body fluid has been most used for early diagnosis
of kidney function and renal diseases; therefore, it is desirable
to develop a rapid and quantitative method for creatinine detection.
Herein, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) based on evaporation-induced
optimal hotspots of Au nanocubes has been employed to quantitatively
detect creatinine in human serum. Time-dependent SERS measurements
during the evaporating process clearly prove that the optimal hotspots
are formed on the eve of droplet drying of a Au sol and analyte mixture.
The reproducibility tested by independent droplet experiments shows
a relative standard deviation of SERS intensity of about 4.16%. Furthermore,
the quantitative analysis of creatinine shows a clear linear fitting
between the logarithmic SERS intensity and the creatinine concentrations
with a correlation coefficient of 0.987. The creatinine level in the
serum from volunteers estimated by this method shows an average difference
of less than 5% compared to that by the clinical Jaffe reaction method.
The evaporation-induced optimal hotspot method with good reproducibility
offers a simple and feasible way for practical SERS detection.
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