title: Self-Assembled Nanocube-Based Plasmene Nanosheets as Soft Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Substrates toward Direct Quantitative Drug Identification on Surfaces.
abstract: We report on self-assembled nanocube-based plasmene nanosheets as new surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates toward direct identification of a trace amount of drugs sitting on topologically complex real-world surfaces. The uniform nanocube arrays (superlattices) led to low spatial SERS signal variances (∼2%). Unlike conventional SERS substrates which are based on rigid nanostructured metals, our plasmene nanosheets are mechanically soft and optically semitransparent, enabling conformal attachment to real-world solid surfaces such as banknotes for direct SERS identification of drugs. Our plasmene nanosheets were able to detect benzocaine overdose down to a parts-per-billion (ppb) level with an excellent linear relationship (R(2) > 0.99) between characteristic peak intensity and concentration. On banknote surfaces, a detection limit of ∼0.9 × 10(-6) g/cm(2) benzocaine could be achieved. Furthermore, a few other drugs could also be identified, even in their binary mixtures with our plasmene nanosheets. Our experimental results clearly show that our plasmene sheets represent a new class of unique SERS substrates, potentially serving as a versatile platform for real-world forensic drug identification.
authors: †Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Victoria, Australia.|‡The Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication, 151 Wellington Road, Clayton 3168, Victoria, Australia.
authors: Kae Jye
authors: KJ
authors: Si
authors: †Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Victoria, Australia.|‡The Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication, 151 Wellington Road, Clayton 3168, Victoria, Australia.
authors: Pengzhen
authors: P
authors: Guo
authors: †Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Victoria, Australia.|‡The Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication, 151 Wellington Road, Clayton 3168, Victoria, Australia.
authors: Qianqian
authors: Q
authors: Shi
authors: †Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Victoria, Australia.|‡The Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication, 151 Wellington Road, Clayton 3168, Victoria, Australia.
authors: Wenlong
authors: W
authors: Cheng
mesh_terms: D000082:Acetaminophen / Q000032:analysis; D018712:Analgesics, Non-Narcotic / Q000032:analysis; D000779:Anesthetics, Local / Q000032:analysis*; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal / Q000032:analysis; D001241:Aspirin / Q000032:analysis; D001566:Benzocaine / Q000032:analysis*; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D007052:Ibuprofen / Q000032:analysis; D057230:Limit of Detection; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry*; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D018712:Analgesics, Non-Narcotic; D000779:Anesthetics, Local; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal; D000082:Acetaminophen; D012834:Silver; D006046:Gold; D001241:Aspirin; D001566:Benzocaine; D007052:Ibuprofen