Repository logo
 

Inhibiting Analyte Theft in Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Substrates: Subnanomolar Quantitative Drug Detection.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

de Nijs, Bart 
Carnegie, Cloudy 
Grys, David-Benjamin 

Abstract

Quantitative applications of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) often rely on surface partition layers grafted to SERS substrates to collect and trap-solvated analytes that would not otherwise adsorb onto metals. Such binding layers drastically broaden the scope of analytes that can be probed. However, excess binding sites introduced by this partition layer also trap analytes outside the plasmonic "hotspots". We show that by eliminating these binding sites, limits of detection (LODs) can effectively be lowered by more than an order of magnitude. We highlight the effectiveness of this approach by demonstrating quantitative detection of controlled drugs down to subnanomolar concentrations in aqueous media. Such LODs are low enough to screen, for example, urine at clinically relevant levels. These findings provide unique insights into the binding behavior of analytes, which are essential when designing high-performance SERS substrates.

Description

Keywords

SERS, THC, drug detection, nanoparticles, self-assembly, spice, synthetic cannabinoids, tetrahydrocannabinol, Bridged-Ring Compounds, Dronabinol, Gold, Imidazoles, Indoles, Limit of Detection, Metal Nanoparticles, Molecular Dynamics Simulation, Paraquat, Principal Component Analysis, Psychotropic Drugs, Reproducibility of Results, Spectrum Analysis, Raman

Journal Title

ACS Sens

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2379-3694
2379-3694

Volume Title

4

Publisher

American Chemical Society (ACS)

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L027151/1)
Isaac Newton Trust (18.08(K))
Leverhulme Trust (ECF-2018-021)
European Commission (658360)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L015978/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/R020965/1)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Marie Sk?odowska-Curie actions (702005)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L015889/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/G060649/1)
In addition to the EPSRC funding B.d.N acknowledges support from the Leverhulme Trust and Isaac Newton Trust, C.C. acknowledges support from NPL (PO443073), R.C. acknowledges support from the Dr. Manmohan Singh scholarship from St. John’s College, M.K. thanks the European Commission for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (SPARCLEs, 7020005), S.J.B. thanks the European Commission for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (NANOSPHERE, 658360).