Reproducible SERS substrates manipulated by interparticle spacing and particle diameter of gold nano-island array using in-situ thermal evaporation

Ming-Chien Yang; Ting-Yin Chien; Yu-Wei Cheng; Chien-Kuo Hsieh; Wei-Lin Syu; Kuan-Syun Wang; Yun-Chu Chen; Jeng-Shiung Chen; Cheng-Cheung Chen; Ting-Yu Liu

doi:10.1016/j.saa.2023.123190

Reproducible SERS substrates manipulated by interparticle spacing and particle diameter of gold nano-island array using in-situ thermal evaporation

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2023 Dec 15:303:123190. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2023.123190. Epub 2023 Jul 21.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 106335, Taiwan.
² Department of Materials Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei City 243303, Taiwan.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei City 243303, Taiwan; Biochemical Technology R&D Center, Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei City 243303, Taiwan. Electronic address: louischengblue@gmail.com.
⁴ Yottadeft Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd., Taipei 10460, Taiwan.
⁵ Institute of Preventive Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, New Taipei City 23742, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Medical Science, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei 11490, Taiwan. Electronic address: chengcheung_chen@mail.ndmctsgh.edu.tw.
⁶ Department of Materials Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei City 243303, Taiwan; Biochemical Technology R&D Center, Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei City 243303, Taiwan; Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan City 32003, Taiwan. Electronic address: tyliu0322@gmail.com.

PMID: 37499474
DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2023.123190

Abstract

Gold (Au) nano-island arrays were deposited on the glass substrate to fabricate surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates by in-situ thermal evaporation (deposited and annealed samples at the same time). The optimal SERS intensity deposited by various thicknesses and in-situ annealing temperatures of Au nano-island arrays would be investigated. The biomolecules (adenine) were dropped on the well-designed SERS substrate for precise and quantitative SERS detection. The characterization of Au nano-island arrays SERS substrate would be evaluated by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy. The results showed that the optimal deposition thickness and annealing temperature of Au nano-island arrays SERS substrate is about 14 nm and 200 °C respectively, which can construct the smallest interparticle spacing (W)/ particle diameter (D) ratio and the lowest reflection (%) and transmittance (%) to form the strongest SERS intensity. Moreover, finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation of the electromagnetic field distributions on Au nano-island arrays displays the similar trend with the experimental results. The 14 nm deposition with 200 °C in-situ annealing temperature would display the highest density of hot-spots by FDTD simulation. The reproducible Au nano-island arrays SERS substrates with tunable surface roughness, W/D ratio, and lower reflection and transmittance show promising potential for SERS detection of biomolecules, bacteria, and viruses.

Keywords: Bio-detection; Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation; Nano-island arrays; Surface-enhanced Raman scattering; Thermal evaporation.