Abstract
Biomarkers are important biochemical indicators, which could be used for identification, early diagnosis and monitoring of diseases during the course of treatment. However, biomarker diagnosis has some shortcomings such as requiring a large amount of samples, long test time and high cost, which seriously influences the correctness and timely treatment to patients. Here, a relatively fast and efficient plasmonic hot spot-localized surface imprinting of Ag spheres using biomarker template immobilization and hydrogel copolymerization is described. The technique takes a fine control of the imprinting process at the nanometre scale and provides a biosensor with high sensitivity. Proof of the opinion is established by detection of biomarker using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy. This work represents a valuable step towards SERS with biomarkers for cost-saving and time-saving diagnostic assay. It is expected that the new surface imprinted hydrogel plasmonic material can drive possibilities in advancing application of biomarkers in plasmonic biosensors.
Highlights
In recent years, biomarkers have been widely used in clinical diagnosis for the most crucial and important diseases
The morphology and structure of the Ag spheres and Ag@MIP hydrogel (MIPH) were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM)
The SEM and TEM images show that the Ag nanoparticles are spheric morphology, while the shape is regular and the particle size is homogeneous
Summary
Biomarkers have been widely used in clinical diagnosis for the most crucial and important diseases. The challenge is to find a sensitive, accurate, simple, rapid and low-cost method for detecting biomarkers in medical services. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), as a powerful analytical tool, has attracted considerable attention for possessing fingerprint information, high sensitiveness and requiring small amounts of samples for testing [1,2,3]. It is a non-destructive and non-invasive technique that can produce strongly enhanced Raman signals of adsorbed molecules on noble metal surfaces, such as Ag, Au and Cu [4]. Bare noble metals are oxidized, such that their SERS stability will be degraded [6,7]
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