Slippery Au Nanosphere Monolayers with Analyte Enrichment and SERS Enhancement Functions

Abstract

Slippery surfaces can enrich analytes from solutions into tiny dots after solvent evaporation for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection. Here, we make the self-assembled Au nanosphere monolayers slippery, which can not only behave as SERS substrates but also enrich the analytes during solvent evaporation. A thin silica shell was used to wrap the Au nanosphere monolayer to allow the functionalization of a slippery polydimethylsiloxane brush monolayer onto it. These slippery Au nanosphere monolayers could be easily cleaned and reused many times. When Au nanospheres were introduced into the analyte solution droplet on the slippery Au nanosphere monolayer, a 3D Au nanoparticle/analyte aggregate was formed after solvent evaporation. Both the Au nanoparticle aggregate and the underneath slippery Au nanosphere monolayer could contribute to SERS enhancement. We endow the self-assembled Au nanosphere monolayer SERS substrates with an analyte enrichment function, greatly strengthening their SERS enhancement.