Silk fibroin fibers decorated with urchin-like Au/Ag nanoalloys: a flexible hygroscopic SERS sensor for monitoring of folic acid in human sweat
Hui Ma, Qingqiang Cui, Linlin Xu, Yue Tian, Anxin Jiao, Chang Wang, Mengya Zhang, Shuang Li, Ming Chen
Abstract
Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy has become a powerful and sensitive analytical tool for the detection and assessment of chemical/biological molecules in special scenarios. Herein we propose a flexible hygroscopic SERS biocompatible sensor based on the silk fibroin fibers (SFF) decorated with urchin-like Au/Ag nanoalloys (NAs). The hybrid SFF-Au/Ag NAs with a stronger absorbance capacity (500∼1100 nm) and excellent hygroscopicity provide a remarkable higher near-infrared (NIR)-SERS activity than that of bare urchin-like Au/Ag NAs. The interesting NIR-SERS sensor enables the limit of detection (LOD) of folic acid (FA) to be achieved at nanomolar (nM, 10 −9 M) level, facilitating the ultrasensitive monitoring of FA in human sweat and offering reliable real-time personal health management in the near future.