Controlled fabrication of silver nanoneedles array for SERS & the application in dectecting narcotic

What is it about?

Novel surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates with high SERS-activity are ideal for novel SERS sensors, detectors to detect illicitly sold narcotics and explosives. In this work, a simple Ar+-ion sputtering route has been developed to fabricate silver nanoneedles arrays on silicon substrates for SERS-active substrates to detect trace-level illicitly sold narcotics.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

The SERS enhancement factor of greater than 1010 was reproducibly achieved by the well-aligned nanoneedles arrays. Furthermore, ketamine hydrochloride molecules, can be detected down to 27 ppb by using our SERSsubstrate within 3 s, indicating the sensitivity of our SERS substrates for trace amounts of narcotics andthat SERS technology can become an important analytical technique in forensic laboratories because it can provide a rapid and nondestructive method of trace detection.