Nan Chen, Ting-Hui Xiao, Zhenyi Luo, Yasutaka Kitahama, Kotaro Hiramatsu, Naoki Kishimoto, Tamitake Itoh, Zhenzhou Cheng & Keisuke Goda
Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a powerful tool for vibrational spectroscopy as it provides several orders of magnitude higher sensitivity than inherently weak spontaneous Raman scattering by exciting localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) on metal substrates. However, SERS can be unreliable for biomedical use since it sacrifices reproducibility, uniformity, biocompatibility, and durability due to its strong dependence on “hot spots”, large photothermal heat generation, and easy oxidization. Here, we demonstrate the design, fabrication, and use of a metal-free (i.e., LSPR-free), topologically tailored nanostructure composed of porous carbon nanowires in an array as a SERS substrate to overcome all these problems. Specifically, it offers not only high signal enhancement (~106) due to its strong broadband charge-transfer resonance, but also extraordinarily high reproducibility due to the absence of hot spots, high durability due to no oxidization, and high compatibility to biomolecules due to its fluorescence quenching capability.
Keywords: porous carbon nanowire array, porous carbon, nanowire array, enhancement factor, rotavirus RNA, SERS, Paper-based SERS, Silver clusters, DFT, Experimental analysis, theoretical modelling, Raman, photoscience in biology, experimental techniques, Raman spectroscopy, theoretical approaches, single molecules, synthesis methods, ultrafast photochemistry, photoscience at nanoscale, infrared spectroscopy, surface enhanced raman spectroscopy, press, sciene, big scale research,