Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering Sensing with Nanostructures Fabricated by Soft Nanolithography

The nanospike structures formed with femtosecond laser irradiations have been successfully replicated on the surface of a polyurethane (PU) polymer using a low cost soft nanolithography method. The surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) of rhodamine 6G (Rh6G) and dinitrotoluene (DNT) molecules have been measured with silver coated PU nanospike surfaces by a simple portable Raman spectrometer. Compared to a flat silver coated surface, where no Raman Scattering of the molecules can be detected by the simple portable Raman spectrometer, the Raman spectra are enhanced by more than 4 orders of magnitudes. This indicates that the high area/volume ratio and small size of the PU nanospikes can be used for SERS sensing.

[1]  A. Campion,et al.  Surface-enhanced Raman scattering , 1998 .

[2]  Pablo G. Etchegoin,et al.  Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering Enhancement Factors: A Comprehensive Study , 2007 .

[3]  Mengyan Shen,et al.  High-density regular arrays of nanometer-scale rods formed on silicon surfaces via femtosecond laser irradiation in water. , 2008, Nano letters.

[4]  Christine D. Keating,et al.  Protein:Colloid Conjugates for Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering: Stability and Control of Protein Orientation , 1998 .

[5]  A. Otto,et al.  Surface enhanced Raman scattering , 1983 .

[6]  E. Mazur,et al.  Formation of regular arrays of silicon microspikes by femtosecond laser irradiation through a mask , 2003 .

[7]  P. Hildebrandt,et al.  Surface-enhanced resonance Raman spectroscopy of Rhodamine 6G adsorbed on colloidal silver , 1984 .

[8]  G. Schatz.  Theoretical Studies of Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering , 1984 .

[9]  G. Whitesides,et al.  Approaching zero: using fractured crystals in metrology for replica molding. , 2005, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[10]  M. Moskovits.  Surface-enhanced spectroscopy , 1985 .

[11]  J. Janni,et al.  Surface-enhanced raman detection of 2,4-dinitrotoluene impurity vapor as a marker to locate landmines. , 2000, Analytical chemistry.

[12]  Louis E. Brus,et al.  Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy of Individual Rhodamine 6G Molecules on Large Ag Nanocrystals , 1999 .

[13]  R. Dasari,et al.  Single Molecule Detection Using Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) , 1997 .

[14]  Steven R. Emory,et al.  Probing Single Molecules and Single Nanoparticles by Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering , 1997, Science.

[15]  Mengyan Shen,et al.  Femtosecond Laser-Induced Formation Of Submicrometer Spikes On Silicon In Water , 2004 .