Alotaibi Aeshah F, Gan Rongcheng, Kume Eni, Duleba Dominik, Alanazi Ahmed, Finlay Allan, Johnson Robert P, Rice James H
School of Physics, University College Dublin Belfield Dublin 4 Ireland
Department of Physics, College of Science and Humanities, Shaqra University Shaqra Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Nanoscale Adv. 2025 Mar 5;7(8):2360-2367. doi: 10.1039/d4na00942h. eCollection 2025 Apr 8.
Flexible substrates for sensing provide adaptable, lightweight, and highly sensitive platforms for detecting different substances. The flexibility of these substrates allows for seamless integration with complex shapes and dynamic surfaces, enabling monitoring in challenging conditions using methods such as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Here we outline a flexible metamaterial array sensor formed from plasmonic silver-coated nanoimprinted piezoelectric polyvinylidene fluoride film. We show that nanoscale array features can be prepared on the surface of the piezoelectric film using a facile nanoimprinting procedure. These nanoimprinted features act as polarization channels that enable plasmonic resonances, enhancing the SERS signal strength and improving reproducibility. We combine this effect with the inherent piezoelectric properties of polyvinylidene fluoride to further enhance the Raman signal strength upon mechanical deformation. Our results demonstrate a significant enhancement of the SERS signal when probed at a wavelength of 532 nm, achieving over an order of magnitude increase in signal strength for a range of analytes. This lightweight and flexible SERS substrate holds significant potential for applications in medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and trace detection, offering a highly sensitive and reproducible analytical platform.
用于传感的柔性基板为检测不同物质提供了适应性强、重量轻且高度灵敏的平台。这些基板的柔韧性使其能够与复杂形状和动态表面无缝集成，从而可以使用表面增强拉曼光谱（SERS）等方法在具有挑战性的条件下进行监测。在此，我们概述了一种由等离子体银涂层纳米压印压电聚偏二氟乙烯薄膜形成的柔性超材料阵列传感器。我们表明，使用简便的纳米压印工艺可以在压电薄膜表面制备纳米级阵列特征。这些纳米压印特征充当极化通道，能够实现等离子体共振，增强SERS信号强度并提高重现性。我们将这种效应与聚偏二氟乙烯的固有压电特性相结合，以在机械变形时进一步增强拉曼信号强度。我们的结果表明，在532 nm波长下探测时，SERS信号有显著增强，对于一系列分析物，信号强度实现了超过一个数量级的增加。这种轻质且柔性的SERS基板在医学诊断、环境监测和痕量检测应用中具有巨大潜力，提供了一个高度灵敏且可重现的分析平台。
