Among superhydrophobic or superhydrophilic substrates which one is better for SERS-based ultrasensitive detection of aqueous biomolecules and why? If a substrate is superhydrophobic, can it be used for SERS studies on aqueous solutions of analytes? Is hydrophilicity of the substrates used a must for these cases?
Dear Satheeshkumar Elumalai,
Thanks. This is an interesting manuscript demonstrating the capability of superhydrophobic SERS substrates, where superhydrophobicity is used to concentrate smaller analyte concentrations as the contact area is small. Does it mean hydrophilicity/ chemical interactions of analyte molecules with the substrate is not needed for SERS sensing of aqueous analytes? In that case the SERS enhancement is mainly electromagnetic in origin. This does not consider chemical enhancement mechanism, which becomes critical for plasmonic metal-molecule interactions which contribute significantly.
Hydrophobic (contact angle ~90degree) to superhydrophobic surface ( >140degree) provides additional analyte concentration effect to concentrate the analyte molecules within a small area, and deposit them on the SERS hotspots efficiently, as the aqueous droplet dries. Article Superhydrophobic Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) Pl...
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