SERS-Active Substrates

Dear Colleagues,

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering/spectroscopy (SERS) has attracted increasing interest, both in terms of fundamental Physics/Chemistry and application in several fields, such as materials science, environmental sciences, sensors, biology, biophysics, and medicine. In fact, SERS can be exploited as a label-free detection method able to provide ultra-high sensitivity within biomolecular and chemical sensing. Typical SERS-active substrates are composed of noble metals (Au, Ag, Pt, etc.) in the form of roughened surfaces, nanoparticle aggregates, or arrayed elements.

Recently, a great deal of high quality research has been addressed to solid SERS nanostructured substrates, which can yield electromagnetic enhancement linked to surface plasmon resonances and/or chemical enhancement due to charge transfer processes. In addition to noble metals, semiconductors and transition metal-oxides have emerged as potential SERS-active substrates. The merging of electromagnetic and chemical enhancements can make SERS a powerful technique allowing vibrational spectra detection even from individual molecules. Moreover, microfluidic devices coupled with SERS detection methods are attracting great attention for the possibility to integrate in sensing platforms a biological or chemical protocol with a very sensitive technique, approaching a controlled analyte injection, a uniform molecular distribution and a reduced reagent volume.

This Special Issue aims to introduce recent progress in the synthesis and application of SERS-active substrates promoting a synergy of several complementary competences in the research community.

Prof. Fabrizio Giorgis
Prof. Hugo Aguas
Guest Editors

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