Application of Doehlert Matrix for an Optimized Preparation of a Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) Substrate Based on Silicon Nanowires for Ultrasensitive Detection of Rhodamine 6G

Abstract

In this work, we combined a hierarchical nano-array effect of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) with a metallic surface of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) to design a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) scattering substrate for sensitive detection of Rhodamine 6G (R6G) which is a typical dye for fluorescence probes. The SiNWs were prepared by Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching (MACE) of n-Si (100) wafers. The Doehlert design methodology was used for planning the experiment and analyzing the experimental results. Thanks to this methodology, the R6G SERS response has been optimized by studying the effects of the silver nitrate concentration, silver nitrate and R6G immersion times and their interactions. The immersion time in R6G solution stands out as the most of influential factor on the SERS response.

An Investigation of Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering of Different Analytes Adsorbed on Gold Nanoislands

“…Rhodamine 6G and riboflavin have both been used as analyte molecules in several cases to investigate the optimization of different production of SERS substrates. Furthermore, using the optimized substrates, the detection limit is determined for both analytes [4,23,33,[42][43][44][45].…”

“…The SERS effect can occur when the analyte is in close vicinity of a nanoscale-structured metal surface. By using metal surfaces with optimal parameters, the intensity of Raman signals can be enhanced by several orders of magnitude [2][3][4].…”

Functionalized SERS substrate based on silicon nanowires for rapid detection of prostate specific antigen

“…Then, AgNPs were deposited on SiNWs nanostructure through the electroless deposition technique by the reduction of Ag + [28]. Then, SiNWs were immersed in an aqueous solution of HF and AgNO 3 under the optimal conditions found in our previous study devoted for rhodamine 6G detection [26]. The AgNPs/SiNWs were further functionalized with a densely packed self-assembled layer of hexanethiol, to avoid nonspecific binding of the analyte on the surface, by incubating the SERS substrate in 10 -3 M of MCH [29,30].…”

“…Silicon nanowires, which are a one-dimensional nanomaterial with a large specific surface area [24], are one of the most used nanomaterial in SERS-based biosensors. Taking advantage of the characteristic surface plasmon resonance of silver nanoparticles [25], which act as signal enhancing substrates, the combination of these two materials has been widely used as a transducer material to develop SERS sensors [26]. In view of the above, we report here the development of a SERS aptasensor for selective, sensitive and inexpensive prostate specific antigen detection.…”

Optimization of Reactive-Ion Etching (RIE) parameters to maximize the lateral etch rate of silicon using SF6/N2 gas mixture: An alternative to etching Si in MEMS with Au components

“…We used a four-variables Doehlert Design of Experiment (DOE) [8] to determine a relationship between etching parameters and the lateral etch rate minimizing the number of experiments. This kind of DOE is widely used for multivariate optimization of different processes and technologies [9][10][11]. In this study, the parameters were optimized to obtain a high lateral etch rate.…”