Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy substrates for industrial and basic research applications

by Hiroyuki Takei

Tuesday Jul 7, 2026, 4:15 PM → 5:45 PM Europe/Berlin

H5 (UHG)

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has long fascinated researchers associated with the field of plasmonitcs, but in recent years, there are growing numbers of non-specialists who become intrigued by the possibility of applying SERS to their own fields such as food science, agricultures, environmental monitoring and medicines. Target molecules can range from more traditional organic compounds to polymers and inorganic substances. In our lab, we have been making SERS substrates based on metal film on nanosphere (mFON) and have carried out an extensive evaluation study, making comparison to commercial SERS substrates. After comfirming competitive advantages of our own substrates, we began to offer substrates to potential users free of chare. This has allowed us to obtaine much data on what would be good targets for SERS. After having received requests for detecting various target molecules, we have developed various SERS devices suited for particular applications. In this presentation, we will describe four types of such SERS devices. Standard SERS spot consists of an area, 3 mm in diameter, covered by silver nanoparticle [1]. A second type, referred to as Lotus SERS, consists of a smaller area, 1 mm in diameter, surrounded by asuperhydrophobic area, suited for taking measurements of a highly diluted liquid sample of low volume [2, 3]. A third typecalled FlexiSERS is designed to take direct measurements of molecules adsorbed on a solid surface. This is well suited for detection of residual pesticides on agricultural produces [4]. The fourth type is characterized by the use of aluminum base substrates shaped like combs, AluSERS. This is suitable for taking SERS measurements of multiple samples in parallel for high-throughput characteriztion. For all four types of SERS devices, we will describe specific applications with target moleucles ranging from food additives, pesticides, microplastic, volatile sulfur compounds, halogen compounds, drugs in blood etc.

 

References

[1]    H. Haraguchi, N. Frese, A. Gölzhäuser, H. Takei, RSC Advances, 9 (2019)

[2]    U. Yamaguchi, M. Ogawa, H. Takei, molecules, 25 (2020)

[3]    U. Yamaguchi, H. Honda., S. Kumagai, H. Takei, Anal. Sci., 41 (2025)

[4]    H. Takei, N. Saito, T. Okamoto, K. Watanabe, M. Westphal, R. Tomioka, A. Gölzhäuser, Analyst, 148 (2023)

2026-07-07-HiroyukiTakei.pdf