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Updated: Jul 8, 2025
A Filter-based Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopic Assay for Rapid Detection of Chemical Contaminants
Published on: February 19, 2016
Aramid nanofiber membrane decorated with monodispersed silver nanoparticles as robust and flexible SERS chips for
Sihang Zhang1, Kejun Jin2, Jiangtao Xu2
1Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Functional Food of Hainan Province, School of Food Science and Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou, 570228, China; School of Fashion and Textiles, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon 999077, Hong Kong, China; Hainan Institute for Food Control, Key Laboratory of Tropical Fruits and Vegetables Quality and Safety for State Market Regulation, Haikou 570314, China.
Abstract:
Aramid nanofibers (ANFs) as an innovative nanoscale building block exhibit great potential for novel high-performance multifunctional membranes attributed to their extraordinary performance. However, the application of aramid nanofibers in the field of surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensing has been rarely reported. In this work, aramid nanofibers derived from commercial Kevlar fibers were synthesized by a facile dimethyl sulfoxide/potassium hydroxide (DMSO/KOH) solution treatment. The monodispersed silver nanoparticle-decorated aramid nanofiber (m-Ag@ANF) membranes were constructed by an efficient vacuum filtration technique. Taking advantages of unique intrinsic properties of ANF, the m-Ag@ANF substrates exhibit good flexibility, excellent mechanical properties and prominent thermal stability. Besides, due to the abundance of positively charged amino-group on the ANF substrates, the negatively charged m-AgNPs were uniformly and firmly deposited on the surface of ANF substrate through electrostatic interactions. As a result, the optimal flexible m-Ag-9@ANF SERS substrate exhibits high sensitivity of 10-9 M for methylene blue (MB) and excellent signal reproducibility (RSD = 6.37 %), as well as outstanding signal stability (up to 15 days). Besides, the 2D Raman mapping and FDTD simulations further reveal prominent signal homogeneity and strong electric field distribution for flexible m-Ag-9@ANF SERS substrate. Finally, it is demonstrated that the flexible m-Ag-9@ANF SERS substrate can also be used for detection of toxic molecules on irregular surfaces by a feasible paste-and-read process. The m-Ag@ANF paper exhibits potential applications as a flexible, low-cost, robust and stable SERS sensing platform for trace detection of toxic materials.
