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Updated: Oct 25, 2025
Low Molecular Weight Protein Enrichment on Mesoporous Silica Thin Films for Biomarker Discovery
Published on: April 17, 2012
Stable SERS substrate based on highly reflective metal liquid-like films wrapped hydrogels for direct determination
Chengcheng Huo1, Wanying Han1, Wei Tang1
1Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science of Shaanxi Province and School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, 620 Xi Chang'an Street, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710119, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
The study of the interaction between small molecules and proteins is important. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is suitable for such applications since it has the power of detecting a molecule based on its intrinsic nature and without labeling. Herein, the MeLLFs@PAAG SERS substrate supporting highly reflective metal liquid-like films (MeLLFs) with polyacrylamide hydrogels (PAAG) has high-density "hot spots" to provide excellent SERS activity. The MeLLFs@PAAG formed by AgNPs only has less than 15% SERS activity loss when stored in the air for more than three weeks. By using rhodamine 6G (R6G) as a model analyte, the AgNPs based MeLLFs@PAAG SERS substrate exhibits an enhancement factor (EF) as high as 8.0 × 106, a limit of detection (LOD) of 76.8 pM (S/N = 3). Also, the formed PAAG provided a 3D molecular network to orderly secure the assembled nanoparticles (NPs), which not only improves the stability of NPs but also shields the Raman signal of proteins as high as 45 g/L allowing the direct determination of the binding rate of human serum albumin (HSA) and doxorubicin (DOX). A binding rate of about 70% was detected, which is consistent with previous reports. Thus, proposed the MeLLFs@PAAG SERS substrate can be used as a promising candidate for SERS measurement in complex biological samples.
