We present low-cost bioenabled surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates that can be massively produced in sustainable and eco-friendly methods with significant commercial potentials for the detection of food contamination and drinking water pollution. The sensors are based on diatom frustules with integrated plasmonic nanoparticles. The ultra-high sensitivity of the SERS substrates comes from the coupling between the diatom frustules and Ag nanoparticles to achieve dramatically increased local optical field to enhance the light-matter interactions for SERS sensing. We successfully applied the bioenabled SERS substrates to detect melamine in milk and aromatic compounds in water with sensitivity down to 1μg/L.

Date Published: 13 May 2015
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 9488, Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII, 948808 (13 May 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2178077

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9488:
Sensing for Agriculture and Food Quality and Safety VII
Moon S. Kim; Kuanglin Chao; Bryan A. Chin, Editor(s)