Review of SERS Substrates for Chemical Sensing

Abstract

The SERS effect was initially discovered in the 1970s. Early research focused on understanding the phenomenon and increasing enhancement to achieve single molecule detection. From the mid-1980s to early 1990s, research started to move away from obtaining a fundamental understanding of the phenomenon to the exploration of analytical applications. At the same time, significant developments occurred in the field of photonics that led to the advent of inexpensive, robust, compact, field-deployable Raman systems. The 1990s also saw rapid development in nanoscience. This convergence of technologies (photonics and nanoscience) has led to accelerated development of SERS substrates to detect a wide range of chemical and biological analytes. It would be a monumental task to discuss all the different kinds of SERS substrates that have been explored. Likewise, it would be impossible to discuss the use of SERS for both chemical and biological detection. Instead, a review of the most common metallic (Ag, Cu, and Au) SERS substrates for chemical detection only is discussed, as well as SERS substrates that are commercially available. Other issues with SERS for chemical detection have been selectivity, reversibility, and reusability of the substrates. How these issues have been addressed is also discussed in this review.

Large‐Scale Plasmonic Hybrid Framework with Built‐In Nanohole Array as Multifunctional Optical Sensing Platforms

“…First, coupling nanohole arrays with low‐dimensional functional materials (e.g., hybrid perovskites, graphene, black phosphorus, and antimonene) is expected to modulate the plasmonic resonance, photoluminescence, and absorption for light harvesting or high‐resolution imaging at visible frequency 51,52. In addition, such tiny nanoholes at deep‐subwavelength scale will be advantageous to trace amounts detection and thus can be applied to biomedical sensors for molecule tracking and blood test 53–55. One additional advantage is that the nanohole template is robust and reusable, as TiN is a refractory plasmonic material that can endure thermal and laser treatment 30.…”

“…[51,52] In addition, such tiny nanoholes at deep-subwavelength scale will be advantageous to trace amounts detection and thus can be applied to biomedical sensors for molecule tracking and blood test. [53][54][55] One additional advantage is that the nanohole template is robust and reusable, as TiN is a refractory plasmonic material that can endure thermal and laser treatment. [30] It can be easily integrated with optical spectroscopy techniques for various molecular sensing applications.…”

Laser intensity limits in surface‐enhanced linear and nonlinear Raman micro‐spectroscopy of organic molecule/Au‐nanoparticle conjugates

“…The number of papers is constantly growing, and the achievements, frontiers, problems, and shortages are summarized in a number of recently published books and review articles. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Presently, the investigations are devoted, among other topics, to clarification of physical mechanisms of laser light interaction with SERS-active surfaces [13][14][15] and, in particular, of surface-enhanced coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (SECARS), [16][17][18][19][20][21] as well as to possible applications of SERS in biology, biochemistry and medicine, [4,[6][7][8]11,[22][23][24][25] chemistry, [9,11,26] and pharmacy. [27] Special interest in recent years is the development of linear and nonlinear versions of SERS excited by femtosecond and picosecond laser sources.…”

SERS detection of food contaminants by means of portable Raman instruments

“…This strong increase in sensitivity (that may even allow single‐molecule detection), along with the inherent Raman fingerprint recognition capabilities, has triggered lots of interest in the scientific community, as indicated by the rise in the percentage of papers (over the total) published in this field, especially from 2000 . All aspects of SERS have been subjects of intense studies: the physical phenomena that regulate the amplification of the signal, the fabrication and optimization of the substrates, the materials suitable for SERS amplification, and its applications. SERS applications span very diverse fields, in continuous expansion.…”