Abstract
The growing interest in the development of new platforms for the application of Raman spectroscopy techniques in biosensor technologies is driven by the potential of these techniques in identifying chemical compounds, as well as structural and functional features of biomolecules. The effect of Raman scattering is a result of inelastic light scattering processes, which lead to the emission of scattered light with a different frequency associated with molecular vibrations of the identified molecule. Spontaneous Raman scattering is usually weak, resulting in complexities with the separation of weak inelastically scattered light and intense Rayleigh scattering. These limitations have led to the development of various techniques for enhancing Raman scattering, including resonance Raman spectroscopy (RRS) and nonlinear Raman spectroscopy (coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy and stimulated Raman spectroscopy). Furthermore, the discovery of the phenomenon of enhanced Raman scattering near metallic nanostructures gave impetus to the development of the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) as well as its combination with resonance Raman spectroscopy and nonlinear Raman spectroscopic techniques. The combination of nonlinear and resonant optical effects with metal substrates or nanoparticles can be used to increase speed, spatial resolution, and signal amplification in Raman spectroscopy, making these techniques promising for the analysis and characterization of biological samples. This review provides the main provisions of the listed Raman techniques and the advantages and limitations present when applied to life sciences research. The recent advances in SERS and SERS-combined techniques are summarized, such as SERRS, SE-CARS, and SE-SRS for bioimaging and the biosensing of molecules, which form the basis for potential future applications of these techniques in biosensor technology. In addition, an overview is given of the main tools for success in the development of biosensors based on Raman spectroscopy techniques, which can be achieved by choosing one or a combination of the following approaches: (i) fabrication of a reproducible SERS substrate, (ii) synthesis of the SERS nanotag, and (iii) implementation of new platforms for on-site testing.
Highlights
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Currently, Raman spectroscopy is a promising analytical tool that provides a chemical fingerprint for molecular identification [1,2]
We focus on Raman spectroscopy techniques that are most commonly used in life science research, including coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS), stimulated Raman spectroscopy (SRS), resonance Raman spectroscopy (RRS), and surfaceenhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), to assess the detection capabilities of and prospects for applying these Raman techniques in the biosensing field
Preference is given to the indirect approach, where the analyte is captured using a receptor molecule and the extrinsic SERS signal is acquired from the reporter molecule, which together reduces the contribution of interfering components to the determination of the target analyte
Summary
Raman spectroscopy relies on inelastically scattered light and allows for the identification of vibrational states (phonons) of molecules. Among the existing variety of enhancement Raman techniques, SERS remains the most studied and widely used analytical tool for biosensor purposes. Despite the fact that SERS is a well-studied and widespread method for creating biosensors, its adaptation analysis of light, real samples and scattering on-site monitoring is limited byresulting. Accuracy, and reliability, the weak point of spontaneous Raman
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