Fabrication of flexible and porous surface enhanced raman scattering (SERS) substrates using nanoparticle inks

Abstract

In order to analyze a sample using SERS, the analyte has to be brought in intimate contact with the substrate. This can be problematic when, let’s say, the molecules of interest in trace amounts are located in large volumes. For example a biotoxin aerosol in a large room or a trace amount of bio-hazardous substances mixed in large volumes of water or other liquids. In principle it is possible to filter out the molecules of interest and then deposit them on the SERS substrate for further analyses. In practice this is very cumbersome and therefore is rarely used. Here we discuss flexible and porous SERS substrates that have been fabricated by depositing silver nano-particle inks on woven or spun fabrics made of glass fiber or cellulose followed by thermal annealing at 170-200°C for 10-15 minutes. Use of microwave absorption at about 10 GHz in the polymer-nanoparticle matrix to monitor the sintering process and to optimize the SERS amplification is also discussed. By varying the annealing time, different levels of nanoparticle clustering and the consequent SERS amplification can be achieved. Sampling of large volumes using the SERS filter substrates to detect airborne molecules is also discussed.