Issue 2, 2021

Towards a point-of-care SERS sensor for biomedical and agri-food analysis applications: a review of recent advancements

Abstract

The growing demand for reliable and robust methodology in bio-chemical sensing calls for the continuous advancement of sensor technologies. Over the last two decades, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has emerged as one of the most promising analytical techniques for sensitive and trace analysis or detection in biomedical and agri-food applications. SERS overcomes the inherent sensitivity limitation associated with Raman spectroscopy, which provides vibrational “fingerprint” spectra of molecules that makes it unique and versatile among other spectroscopy techniques. This paper comprehensively reviews the recent advancements of SERS for biomedical, food and agricultural applications over the last 6 years, and we envision that, in the near future, some of these platforms have the potential to be translated as a point-of-care and rapid sensor for real-life end-user applications. The merits and limitations of various SERS sensor designs are analysed and discussed based on critical features such as sensitivity, specificity, usability, repeatability and reproducibility. We conclude by highlighting the opportunities and challenges in the field while stressing the technological gaps to be addressed in realizing commercially viable point-of-care SERS sensors for practical biomedical and agri-food technological applications.

Graphical abstract: Towards a point-of-care SERS sensor for biomedical and agri-food analysis applications: a review of recent advancements

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
23 9月 2020
Accepted
02 12月 2020
First published
08 12月 2020

Nanoscale, 2021,13, 553-580

Towards a point-of-care SERS sensor for biomedical and agri-food analysis applications: a review of recent advancements

J. Perumal, Y. Wang, A. B. E. Attia, U. S. Dinish and M. Olivo, Nanoscale, 2021, 13, 553 DOI: 10.1039/D0NR06832B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements