College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 210009, China.
Institute of Chemical Materials, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang 621900, China.
Anal Methods. 2020 Aug 27;12(33):4123-4129. doi: 10.1039/d0ay00771d.
Sensitive and reliable methods for explosives detection are of significance in homeland security due to the serious threats of explosives in terrorist attack events. However, such suitable sensors are still rare. Herein, porous silica aerogels decorated with silver nanoparticles (SiO2-Ag hybrids) were prepared and applied as a flexible SERS substrate for ultrasensitive explosives detection. It is worth noting that the silica aerogel we prepared had good flexibility compared with traditional silica aerogels, which effectively avoided structural damage during sample collection. Also, because of excellent adsorption performance provided by the silica aerogel, trace explosive 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO) could be enriched and realized by label-free detection. Combined with the plasma enhancement provided by Ag NPs decorated around these porous aerogels, the limit of detection for explosive NTO was as low as 7.94 × 10-10 M. As far as we know, this SiO2-Ag hybrid SERS substrate was firstly used for the detection of explosives. It presented good sensitivity and reproducibility for analyte sensing. Most importantly, this is a label-free method for trace explosives detection and has a good application prospect in homeland security.
由于爆炸物在恐怖袭击事件中造成的严重威胁，用于爆炸物检测的灵敏可靠的方法在国土安全方面具有重要意义。然而，这种合适的传感器仍然很少。在此，制备了负载银纳米颗粒的多孔二氧化硅气凝胶（SiO2-Ag 杂化材料），并将其用作用于超灵敏爆炸物检测的柔性 SERS 基底。值得注意的是，与传统的二氧化硅气凝胶相比，我们所制备的二氧化硅气凝胶具有更好的柔韧性，有效地避免了在采集样品过程中结构的损坏。此外，由于二氧化硅气凝胶提供了优异的吸附性能，可以对痕量爆炸物 3-硝基-1,2,4-三唑-5-酮（NTO）进行富集和无标记检测。结合由这些多孔气凝胶周围的 Ag NPs 提供的等离子体增强作用，对爆炸物 NTO 的检测限低至 7.94×10-10 M。据我们所知，该 SiO2-Ag 杂化 SERS 基底首次用于爆炸物的检测。它对分析物的传感表现出良好的灵敏度和重现性。最重要的是，这是一种用于痕量爆炸物检测的无标记方法，在国土安全方面具有很好的应用前景。
