Mahmoud, Ahmed
In the past few decades, surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has been evolving as a powerful analytical technique for the detection of a wide of chemical and biological molecules. The technique can reach a sensitivity of single molecule detection, which triggered plenty of ongoing research. In addition, technological advancements in photonics and nanoscience have resulted in the advent of portable and handheld Raman systems. These devices help SERS analysis move from expensive heavy-equipped research labs to low cost field deployable-research. The development of efficient SERS substrates that can provide signal enhancement by many orders of magnitude is a core component for SERS. The SERS substrates market and research are generally dominated by rigid solid substrates that are fabricated mostly by micro/nanofabrication techniques. Although these methods can provide reproducible substrates, they suffer from usability constraints because of their high cost of fabrication.
Keywords: Flexible SERS substrates, Membrane-supported SERS substrates, In-solution SERS substrates, Silver nanocoral, Gold nanostars, Surface enhanced Raman scattering, SERS substrates, SERS