Reusing commercial SERS substrate by gold/silver coating

We investigate commercial nano-engineered SERS (surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy) substrates for the possibility of recycling them and using them multiple times. KlariteTM is a commercial SERS substrate fabricated by nanoscale lithographic patterning technique on silicon wafer before being coated with a thin layer of Gold. It has been widely reported that, this substrate results in more reproducible surface enhanced Raman signals. However, it is designed only for a single measurement and disposable use. In this work, we report a method for recycling one substrate for multiple SERS measurements by coating a thin layer of Gold/Silver after each application of the substrate. The results obtained using reprocessed substrates are comparable to the measurements recorded using fresh substrates.

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