title: Thermally stable plasmonic nanocermets grown on microengineered surfaces as versatile surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy sensors for multianalyte detection.
abstract: Noble metal nanoparticle-based plasmonic sensors, fabricated by top-down and colloidal routes, are widely used for high sensitivity detection of diverse analyte molecules using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). However, most of these sensors do not show stability under harsh environments, which limits their use as versatile SERS substrates. In this work, we report the first use of plasmonic nanocermets, grown on microengineered Si surfaces, as potential candidates for a highly robust SERS sensor. The robustness of the sensor is attributed to the anchoring of the nanoparticles in the nanocermet, which is an important factor for exploiting its reusability. The fairly uniform distribution of nanoparticles in the sensor led to high enhancement factors (10(6)-10(7)) and enabled the detection of low concentrations of a wide range of analytes, including differently charged biomolecules, which is extremely difficult for other SERS sensors. With more precise control over the particle geometry and distribution, plasmonic nanocermets may play an important role in ultrasensitive SERS measurements in adverse conditions such as high temperature.
authors.affiliation: Nanomaterials Research Laboratory, Surface Engineering Division, CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories , Bangalore 560 017, India.
authors.forename: Nitant
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Disha
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Shantanu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aggarwal
authors.forename: Soumik
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Siddhanta
authors.forename: Chandrabhas
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Narayana
authors.forename: Harish C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Barshilia
mesh_terms: D002516:Ceramics / Q000737:chemistry*; D045424:Complex Mixtures / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D054802:Molecular Imprinting / Q000379:methods*; D010316:Particle Size; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000295:instrumentation*; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013499:Surface Properties; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D045424:Complex Mixtures
keywords: Ag nanoparticles; biomolecule detection; high thermal stability; plasmonic nanocermets; surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy