Themed collection Nanoscale and Nanoscale Horizons: Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

Brain disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) and traumatic brain injury (TBI), present significant challenges in early diagnosis and intervention.

Substrate development in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) continues to attract research interest.

Design, development and trend for SERS-active nanomaterials from single component to multi-components are comprehensively introduced, benefiting to the complete understanding of their research status and arousing the research enthusiasm on them.

This article reviews the fundamentals of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and nanomaterials that have been used to design SERS biosensors for the analysis of surface biomarkers on cells and extracellular vesicles.

Surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) leads to improved detection of polar molecules. Engineering of plasmonic substrates and combination with surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) leads to multi-resonant detection and enhanced sensing.

This paper presents a pyroelectric PMN-PT composite plasmonic Ag NP SERS substrate, whose initial SERS signal is further greatly enhanced under the action of a pyroelectric potential, with a dominant chemical mechanism.

We suggest surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy sensor based on chiral shurikens coupled with an array of Ag clusters, which can generate near-chiral plasmonic field using linearly polarized light to enantioselective enhance organic molecules.

Here, we report a highly sensitive and reliable surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-based immunoassay using bimetallic alloy Ag@Au hollow dual-rim nanorings (DRNs) where circular intra-nanogaps strongly collect an electromagnetic near-field.

This work proposes an ultrasensitive and high-specificity whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) sensing method, which combines the light-matter interaction enhancement on a WGM cavity and the “fingerprint spectrum” of surface-enhanced Raman scattering.

A surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy-based in situ analytical tool for the sensitive and rapid monitoring of hydrogen transport through graphene was developed.

Multiplexed imaging of 8 molecular targets with SERS nanoprobes in mice reveals spatially heterogeneous tumor responses to immunotherapy. Multichannel image segmentation enables classification of the tumor regions into responders and naïve.

It is demonstrated that filling salt in the nanogaps in core-gap-shell Au@gap@AuAg nanopeanuts can enhance their extinction coefficient in the 1000–1300 nm NIR-II region, singlet O₂ sensitization QY, and NIR-II PDT efficacy for destroying tumors.

The triple signal amplification for the SERS detection based on 2D monolayer film of etched spiky Au@Ag NPs.

A new 3D composite substrate for on-chip surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy made of nanoporous silicon with embedded gold plasmonic nanoparticles – demonstration of 10⁹ enhancement factor.

Exploring the influence of interlayer interaction on SERS performance by using 2D PtSe₂ and ReS₂ with different numbers of layers as the research objects.

Deformation induced modification of SERS response in polymer grafted plasmonic nanoparticle thin films yields insights into structure-function relationships in plasmonic networks.

The formation of clusters in non-aromatic molecules can give rise to unconventional luminescence or clusteroluminescence.

The temperature-dependent in situ SERS spectra of 4-NTP and 4-ATP are investigated by designing a simple and effective self-assembly system with plasmonic nanoislands to explore the role of thermal effects on plasmon-induced catalytic reactions.

This work shows increased stability and homogeneity for shell-isolated nanoparticle enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrates fabricated by using a combination of lithography and atomic layer deposition, compared to chemically synthesized substrates.

We report a plasmon-mediated resonance energy transfer in an optimized gold nanosphere oligomer system that enhances the photoexcited population of the well known Ru-dye, [Ru(BPY)₃]²⁺ with a defluorescenced Raman signal.

We report a facile method to prepare polymer-grafted plasmonic metal nanoparticles (NPs) that exhibit pH-responsive surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS).

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has great potential in early diagnosis of diseases by detecting volatile biomarkers in exhaled breath, for its high sensitivity, rich chemical molecular fingerprint information, and immunity to humidity.

By making full use of magnetic gold nanocomposite intrinsic properties, a nanozymatic magnetic nanomotor is proposed to improve the effects of photothermal treatment and SERS sensing, realizing the integration of dual driving mechanisms and dual biomedical functions on one nanomotor.

A totally new SERS technology, MBene-enhanced Raman scattering, is developed by employing MBene as a SERS-active material. An ordered vacancy-triggered highly sensitive MBene-based SERS platform with superior signal uniformity is designed.

We develop a simple synthesis method that results in the formation of quasi-spherical SERS nanotags and larger highly anisotropic nanoparticles with a novel structure, which we have designated nanosupernova.

A rapid and simple method was proposed for differentiation and classification of eleven bacterial endotoxins based on surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and advanced machine learning algorithms.

SERS tag-labeled nanoplastic models for quantitative analysis of nanoplastics (NPs) were developed and they suggested the risk of NP uptake by humans via bivalve seafood diets.

Assembly of gold nanorods functionalized by zirconium-based metal–organic frameworks (Au nanorod@Zr-MOF) for superior SERS detection.

Coating gold nanorods with mesoporous silica selectively at the tips boosts their ability to produce a SERS signal with methylene blue compared to coating with a complete shell.

A surface-enhanced Raman scattering sensor based on a functionalized multiple-armed tetrahedral DNA nanostructure immobilized silver nanorod array substrate and SERS tags is constructed to achieve both multiplex detection and enhanced sensitivity.