PLLA nanofibrous paper-based plasmonic substrate with tailored hydrophilicity for focusing SERS detection

We report a new paper-based surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate platform contributed by a poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) nanofibrous paper adsorbed with plasmonic nanostructures, which can circumvent many challenges of the existing SERS substrates. This PLLA nanofibrous paper has three-dimensional porous structure, extremely clean surface with good hydrophobicity (contact angle is as high as 133.4°), and negligible background interference under Raman laser excitation. Due to the strong electrostatic interaction between PLLA nanofiber and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) molecules, the CTAB-coated gold nanorods (GNRs) are efficiently immobilized onto the fibers. Such a hydrophobic paper substrate with locally hydrophilic SERS-active area can confine analyte molecules and prevent the random spreading of molecules. The confinement leads to focusing effect and the GNRs-PLLA SERS substrate is found to be highly sensitive (0.1 nM Rhodamine 6G and malachite green) and exhibit excellent reproducibility (∼8% relative standard deviation (RSD)) and long-term stability. Furthermore, it is also cost-efficient, with simple fabrication methodology, and demonstrates high sample collection efficiency. All of these benefits ensure that this GNRs-PLLA substrate is a really perfect choice for a variety of SERS applications.