title: Droplet formation via flow-through microdevices in Raman and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy--concepts and applications.
abstract: This review outlines concepts and applications of droplet formation via flow-through microdevices in Raman and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) as well as the advantages of the approach. Even though the droplet-based flow-through technique is utilized in various fields, the review focuses on implementing droplet-based fluidic systems in Raman and SERS as these highly specific detection methods are of major interest in the field of analytics. With the combination of Raman or SERS with droplet-based fluidics, it is expected to achieve novel opportunities for analytics. Besides the approach of using droplet-based microfluidic devices as a detection platform, the unique properties of flow-through systems for the formation of droplets are capitalized to produce SERS active substrates and to accomplish uniform sample preparation. Within this contribution, previous reported applications on droplet-based flow-through Raman and SERS approaches and the additional benefit with regard to the importance in the field of analytics are considered.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physical Chemistry and Abbe Center of Photonics, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Helmholtzweg 4, 07743 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: März
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Henkel
authors.forename: Dana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cialla
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schmitt
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Popp