Flexing Piezoelectric Diphenylalanine-Plasmonic Metal Nanocomposites to Increase SERS Signal Strength

Piezoelectric quasi-1D peptide nanotubes and plasmonic metal nanoparticles are combined to create a flexible and self-energized surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrate that strengthens SERS signal intensities by over an order of magnitude compared to an unflexed substrate. The platform is used to sense bovine serum albumin, lysozyme, glucose, and adenine. Finite-element electromagnetic modeling indicates that the signal enhancement results from piezoelectric-induced charge, which is mechanically activated via substrate bending. The results presented here open the possibility of using peptide nanotubes on conformal substrates for in situ SERS detection.