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Chemosensors
Special Issues
Recent Developments in Platforms for SERS Applications
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Recent Developments in Platforms for SERS Applications

A special issue of Chemosensors (ISSN 2227-9040). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Chemical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2024) | Viewed by 8025

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Natércia Martins

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centro de Investigação em Materiais Cerâmicos e Compósitos, Aveiro, Portugal
Interests: paper-based sensors; composites of biopolymers and metal or inorganic nanoparticles; colloids; nanostructured materials; inkjet printing of nanomaterials; surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)
Dr. Sara Fateixa

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centro de Investigação em Materiais Cerâmicos e Compósitos, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Interests: SERS, Raman imaging and TERS applied to nanoscale materials; nanostructured composites based on carbon materials; colloidal nanoparticles for optical sensing applications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past few decades, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy has been recognised as a powerful tool for chemical analysis in several fields, such as environmental monitoring, food safety or medicine. The SERS technique relies on the strong intensification of the Raman signal of analyte molecules when they are adsorbed or in the vicinity of metallic nanostructures (Ag or Au), typically used in colloidal form or supported on solid substrates. The magnitude of SERS enhancement is highly dependent on the type of substrates used for the analysis. Therefore, the design of SERS platforms with high sensitivity, reproducibility, and stability has become a hot topic in recent years.

On the other hand, the rapid development of SERS has also benefited from advances in Raman instrumentation. Examples of these advances are confocal Raman microscopy (CRM) and tip-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy (TERS).

For this Special Issue, we invite both reviews and original research articles discussing recent advances in the fabrication of high sensitivity and reproducibility platforms for SERS or TERS detection. Research articles may focus on the use of SERS and Raman imaging in environment/water quality monitoring, food contaminant detection, illicit drug detection, biological analysis, and medical diagnostics. Theoretical studies on the interaction and orientation of the adsorbates on the metal surface are also welcome. Of particular interest is the fabrication of lab-on-a-chip devices, wearable sensors, and portable/handheld SERS-based platforms for point-of-use applications. Reviews must report a critical overview of the state of the art in a specific application or discuss present and future challenges of SERS coupled with Raman imaging.

Dr. Natércia Martins
Dr. Sara Fateixa
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Chemosensors is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • SERS
  • TERS
  • Raman imaging
  • Metal nanoparticles
  • Plasmonic nanostructures
  • Adsorbate–metal complex
  • Sensing
  • Chemical detection

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 3718 KiB  
Article
Fabrication and Characterization of Hybrid and Tunable ZnO@Ag Flexible Thin Films Used as SERS Substrates
by Ioana Andreea Brezeștean, Daniel Marconi, Nicoleta Elena Dina, Maria Suciu and Alia Colniță
Chemosensors 2023, 11(8), 441; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors11080441 - 7 Aug 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1566
Abstract
Flexible substrates have known increased popularity over rigid ones due to their use in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). They provide irregular surfaces, ideal for in situ sensing. In this context, we report the SERS performance of hybrid ZnO@Ag thin films deposited by magnetron [...] Read more.
Flexible substrates have known increased popularity over rigid ones due to their use in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). They provide irregular surfaces, ideal for in situ sensing. In this context, we report the SERS performance of hybrid ZnO@Ag thin films deposited by magnetron sputtering (MS) on flexible, thermoplastic substrates. This physical deposition method is acknowledged for obtaining high-quality and reproducible ZnO films that can be embedded in (bio)sensing devices with various applications. Three types of thermoplastic-based, commercially available substrates with different glass transition temperatures (Tg) were chosen for the variation in flexibility, transparency, and thickness. Zeonor® (Tg = 136 °C, thickness of 188 μm) and two types of Topas (Topas®: Tg = 142 °C, thickness of 176 μm; Topas2: Tg = 78 °C, thickness of 140 μm) thermoplastic sheets are nonpolar and amorphous cyclo-olefin polymer (COP) and cyclo-olefin copolymers (COC), respectively. Their thicknesses and different values of Tg can greatly affect the topographical and roughness properties of films with small thicknesses and, thus, can greatly influence the enhancement of the Raman signal. The ZnO films deposited on top of Zeonor® or Topas® have identical morphological properties, as shown by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) characterization. Subsequently, by using the MS technique, we tuned the thickness of the deposited silver (Ag) films in the range of 7–30 nm to assess the growth influence on the morphology and the SERS signal amplification of the substrates with and without the ZnO intermediate layer. The SEM analysis showed that the Ag atoms migrated both into the interstitial areas, filling the voids between the ZnO granular structures, and over the latter, forming, in this case, isolated Ag clusters. SERS analysis performed on the ZnO-Ag hybrid films using crystal violet (CV) molecule revealed a limit of detection (LOD) of 10−7 M in the case of 15 nm thick Ag/Zeonor® interlayer films ZnO and relative standard deviation (RSD) below 10%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Developments in Platforms for SERS Applications)
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13 pages, 4037 KiB  
Article
Engineering SERS Properties of Silicon Nanotrees at the Nanoscale
by Hrvoje Gebavi, Petra Pál, István Csarnovics, Vlatko Gašparić and Mile Ivanda
Chemosensors 2022, 10(12), 534; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors10120534 - 15 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1925
Abstract
Large specific surface area nanostructures are desirable in a wide range of sensing applications due to their longer light-trapping path and increased absorption. Engineering of the specific nanotree structure which possesses a high branch density turned out to be challenging from the experimental [...] Read more.
Large specific surface area nanostructures are desirable in a wide range of sensing applications due to their longer light-trapping path and increased absorption. Engineering of the specific nanotree structure which possesses a high branch density turned out to be challenging from the experimental point of view, and certainly not adequately explored. This paper shows how to design substrates with a silicon nanotree structure for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) applications. Silicon nanotrees were synthesized by a Ag-Au nanocluster-catalyzed low-pressure chemical vapor deposition method (LPCVD). By the presented approaches, it is possible to manipulate branches’ number, length and thickness. The synthesized nanostructures are flexible after immersion in water which improves SERS performance. The amount of sputtered metal played a key role in preserving the flexibility of the nanotree structure. The obtained substrates with highly fractal nanostructure were tested on 4-mercaptophenylboronic acid (MPBA) to match the optimal SERS parameters. The silicon nanotrees fabrication, and particularly obtained SERS substrates plated with Ag and Au nanoparticles, demonstrated good features and a promising approach for further sensor development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Developments in Platforms for SERS Applications)
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14 pages, 3575 KiB  
Article
Poly(Thionine)-Modified Screen-Printed Electrodes for CA 19-9 Detection and Its Properties in Raman Spectroscopy
by Yuselis Castaño-Guerrero, Yonny Romaguera-Barcelay, Felismina Teixeira Coelho Moreira, Walter Ricardo Brito, Elvira Fortunato and Maria Goreti Ferreira Sales
Chemosensors 2022, 10(3), 92; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors10030092 - 27 Feb 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3571
Abstract
Polythionine (PTH) is an electroactive compound known for its excellent electron transfer capacity. It has stable and redox centers in its structure, and it can also be generated by electropolymerization of thionine (TH). Due to its properties, it has been used in a [...] Read more.
Polythionine (PTH) is an electroactive compound known for its excellent electron transfer capacity. It has stable and redox centers in its structure, and it can also be generated by electropolymerization of thionine (TH). Due to its properties, it has been used in a large number of applications, including the construction of electrochemical biosensors. In this work, PTH is explored for its ability to generate electrons, which allows it to act as an electrochemical probe in a biosensor that detects CA 19-9 on two different substrates, carbon and gold, using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) as a reading technique in phosphate buffer (PhB). The analytical features of the resulting electrodes are given, showing linear ranges from 0.010 to 10 U/mL. The Raman spectra of PTH films on gold (substrates or nanostars) and carbon (substrates) are also presented and discussed as a potential use for SERS readings as complementary information to electrochemical data. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Developments in Platforms for SERS Applications)
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