A silver-nanoparticle/cellulose-nanofiber composite as a highly effective substrate for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

A highly active surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate was developed by facile deposition of silver nanoparticles onto cellulose fibers of ordinary laboratory filter paper. This was achieved by means of the silver mirror reaction in a manner to control both the size of the silver nanoparticles and the silver density of the substrate. This paper-based substrate is composed of a particle-on-fiber structure with the unique three-dimensional network morphology of the cellulose matrix. For such a SERS substrate with optimized size of the silver nanoparticles (ca. 70 nm) and loading density of silver (17.28 wt %), a remarkable detection limit down to the sub-attomolar (1 × 10(−16) M) level and an enhancement factor of 3 × 10(6) were achieved by using Rhodamine 6G as the analyte. Moreover, this substrate was applied to monitor the molecular recognition through multiple hydrogen bonds in between nucleosides of adenosine and thymidine. This low-cost, highly sensitive, and biocompatible paper-based SERS substrate holds considerable potentials for the detection and analyses of chemical and biomolecular species.