Giordano Andrea N, Rao Rahul
Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH 45433, USA.
National Research Council, Washington, DC 20001, USA.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 Jul 26;13(15):2177. doi: 10.3390/nano13152177.
The first observation of ultraviolet surface-enhanced Raman scattering (UV-SERS) was 20 years ago, yet the field has seen a slower development pace than its visible and near-infrared counterparts. UV excitation for SERS offers many potential advantages. These advantages include increased scattering intensity, higher spatial resolution, resonance Raman enhancement from organic, biological, and semiconductor analytes, probing UV photoluminescence, and mitigating visible photoluminescence from analytes or substrates. One of the main challenges is the lack of readily accessible, effective, and reproducible UV-SERS substrates, with few commercial sources available. In this review, we evaluate the reported UV-SERS substrates in terms of their elemental composition, substrate morphology, and performance. We assess the best-performing substrates with regard to their enhancement factors and limits of detection in both the ultraviolet and deep ultraviolet regions. Even though aluminum nanostructures were the most reported and best-performing substrates, we also highlighted some unique UV-SERS composition and morphology substrate combinations. We address the challenges and potential opportunities in the field of UV-SERS, especially in relation to the development of commercially available, cost-effective substrates. Lastly, we discuss potential application areas for UV-SERS, including cost-effective detection of environmentally and militarily relevant analytes, in situ and operando experimentation, defect engineering, development of materials for extreme environments, and biosensing.
紫外线表面增强拉曼散射（UV-SERS）的首次观测是在20年前，但与可见和近红外的同类技术相比，该领域的发展步伐较为缓慢。用于SERS的紫外线激发具有许多潜在优势。这些优势包括散射强度增加、空间分辨率提高、来自有机、生物和半导体分析物的共振拉曼增强、探测紫外线光致发光以及减少分析物或底物的可见光致发光。主要挑战之一是缺乏易于获得、有效且可重复的UV-SERS底物，商业来源很少。在本综述中，我们根据所报道的UV-SERS底物的元素组成、底物形态和性能进行评估。我们评估了性能最佳的底物在紫外和深紫外区域的增强因子和检测限。尽管铝纳米结构是报道最多且性能最佳的底物，但我们也强调了一些独特的UV-SERS组成和形态的底物组合。我们探讨了UV-SERS领域的挑战和潜在机遇，特别是与开发商业可用、经济高效的底物相关的机遇。最后，我们讨论了UV-SERS的潜在应用领域，包括经济高效地检测与环境和军事相关的分析物、原位和操作实验、缺陷工程、极端环境材料的开发以及生物传感。
