Surface-enhanced Raman scattering

This collection of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) papers has been put together to reflect the importance of the technique in modern analytical chemical research. A number of papers featuring SERS over the years have gone into understanding the phenomena and even now there are still debates about the exact mechanism of the surface enhancement depending on the nature of the system being investigated. The technique of SERS is now expanding beyond physical chemists and physicists into the hands of life scientists, engineers, biologists and clinicians in their desire to make use of the benefits of the technique in terms of its sensitivity, ability to measure vibrational signals that are indicative of particular species without separation steps and the opportunity to use highly portable instrumentation with aqueous samples for point-of-use applications. In terms of publication activity, in 1980 there were 12 papers published on SERS and in 2015 there were over 1700. The number of papers published each year continues to rise and for this specific collection of articles we have an excellent range of topics covered starting with four reviews introducing the use of SERS in hemoproteins, cellular applications of SERS and silicon based SERS sensors followed by original research papers on topics such as assessment of radiotherapy using SERS, intracellular magnetic SERS probes, sensing using mesoporous coated gold and classification of microorganisms by SERS. We also include a personal perspective from Pat Hendra who was involved in the very early work on SERS at Southampton and he describes in a fascinating way the build-up to the first published experimental results. He describes the situation at the time and the data that was obtained and the discussions on the nature of this data that followed. We believe this is the first time this account has been published and we are grateful to Pat for providing his personal recollection which was prompted by his support of the Infrared and Raman Discussion Group where he had promised to provide an account to their membership of his experiences. He has produced a wonderful account as a start to this themed edition on SERS and it’s easy to hear Pat’s voice telling the story as the words are read. We hope you enjoy reading this and the rest of the papers as much as we have.

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