Polymer-supported flexible substrate for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) can largely boost the Raman signal, and thus broaden the manifold potential applications of SERS. According to the current limitations on generality and efficiency, this work designed and developed a transparent, flexible and freestanding substrate and its preparation, conservation and operation procedures. The substrate consists of a polymer supporter and embedded metal nanostructures, which can be used for direct and on-line measurements of samples in various morphologies and circumstances. The detection limit of a flexible SERS(Ag) substrate is lower than 1 pmol/L.