Flexible and wearable glove-based SERS sensor for rapid sampling and sensitive detection of controlled drugs

Abstract

A wearable and flexible glove-based surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensor was developed for on-site detection of tramadol and midazolam and accurate identification of methamphetamine. The glove-based SERS sensor was constructed by fixing the flexible adhesive tape substrate to the fingertip of a glove for efficient analytes extraction, and then adhering to polystyrene sphere (PS) opal photonic crystal for secondary enhancement of Raman signal. The gold trisoctahedra (Au TOH) were assembled uniformly onto adhesive tape by interface self-assembly technique, which effectively improved the signal reproducibility. Moreover, the prepared adhesive tape substrate exhibits good flexibility, which facilitates conformal contact with irregular surfaces and improves sampling efficiency, and different degrees of bending and stretching would not significantly affect the reproducibility of glove-based SERS sensor with RSDs less than 6%. Given its advantages in efficient sample extraction and portable analysis, the proposed sensor enabled the trace detection of tramadol and midazolam in serum with LODs down to 69.19 ng mL−1 and 35.03 ng mL−1, respectively. Furthermore, the sensor also can accurately identify methamphetamine in complex binary mixtures. The designed glove-based SERS sensor with excellent sensitivity and easy sampling provides a verification basis for the preparation of easy-to-use wearable SERS sensors.