Free-standing carbon nanotube films as optical accumulators for multiplex SERRS attomolar detection

A novel hybrid material comprising silver aggregates supported on the porous structure of a free-standing carbon nanotube film was devised and fabricated. This material readily allows filtration of large volumes of fluids, while retaining the active analytes on silver aggregates so that their characteristic surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering signals could be registered. The direct identification of multiple analytes at the attomolar regime was readily achieved through their single-molecule spectra.