TY - JOUR
T1 - A facile wet-chemistry approach to engineer an Au-based SERS substrate and enhance sensitivity down to ppb-level detection
AU - Lee, Chien Wei
AU - Chia, Zi Chun
AU - Hsieh, Yi Ting
AU - Tsai, Hsiao Chieh
AU - Tai, Yenpo
AU - Yu, Teng To
AU - Huang, Chih Chia
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (MOST 108-2113-M-006-012-MY3 and MOST 108-2622-M-006-001-CC1), the Taipei City Hospital (TCH) and the Department of Health, Taipei City Government (TCH no. 10901-62-001). This work was financially supported by the Center of Applied Nanomedicine, National Cheng Kung University from the Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Royal Society of Chemistry.
PY - 2021/2/21
Y1 - 2021/2/21
N2 - A two-dimensional flexible surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) filter substrate provides an alternative strategy for the highly sensitive portable detection of various toxic molecules and biomaterials. Herein, we developed a solid-liquid interfacial reduction reaction to post-engineer a solid Au nanostructure surface on filter paper to improve the SERS effect. Among four reductants (ascorbic acid, l-dopamine, hydroquinone (HQ), and formaldehyde), HQ possessed a larger oxidation overpotential and facilitated homogeneous growth, forming small Au branch-structure nanoparticles from HAuCl4 solution. Due to the surface effect by exposing abundant-OH groups and intrinsic aromatic rings from TNA/HQ on nano-gold, the SERS effect on positively charged analytes near the plasmonic Au surface was enhanced, while forming a protective layer against severe water interruption. The resulting SERS substrate with branched nano-gold provided several SERS-enhanced sites, increased the enhancement by more than 6 times compared to original SERS sensing, and displayed a 1.4-7.4 × 105 analytical enhancement factor, which leads to a limit of detection down to several ppb. Less than 6% of deviation in the SERS intensity at different sensing sites was observed. We successfully improved the primary SERS substrate using a high overpotential reductant. Owing to its soft and flexible properties, the paper-based SERS substrate can be used conveniently in different sizes, pasting on curved materials, detecting additives in fish, and preventing the coffee-ring effect, showing high practicality and potential commercial value in the future. This journal is.
AB - A two-dimensional flexible surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) filter substrate provides an alternative strategy for the highly sensitive portable detection of various toxic molecules and biomaterials. Herein, we developed a solid-liquid interfacial reduction reaction to post-engineer a solid Au nanostructure surface on filter paper to improve the SERS effect. Among four reductants (ascorbic acid, l-dopamine, hydroquinone (HQ), and formaldehyde), HQ possessed a larger oxidation overpotential and facilitated homogeneous growth, forming small Au branch-structure nanoparticles from HAuCl4 solution. Due to the surface effect by exposing abundant-OH groups and intrinsic aromatic rings from TNA/HQ on nano-gold, the SERS effect on positively charged analytes near the plasmonic Au surface was enhanced, while forming a protective layer against severe water interruption. The resulting SERS substrate with branched nano-gold provided several SERS-enhanced sites, increased the enhancement by more than 6 times compared to original SERS sensing, and displayed a 1.4-7.4 × 105 analytical enhancement factor, which leads to a limit of detection down to several ppb. Less than 6% of deviation in the SERS intensity at different sensing sites was observed. We successfully improved the primary SERS substrate using a high overpotential reductant. Owing to its soft and flexible properties, the paper-based SERS substrate can be used conveniently in different sizes, pasting on curved materials, detecting additives in fish, and preventing the coffee-ring effect, showing high practicality and potential commercial value in the future. This journal is.
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U2 - 10.1039/d0nr06537d
DO - 10.1039/d0nr06537d
M3 - Article
C2 - 33503079
AN - SCOPUS:85101673631
SN - 2040-3364
VL - 13
SP - 3991
EP - 3999
JO - Nanoscale
JF - Nanoscale
IS - 7
ER -