Lab-On-Capillary Platform for On-Site Quantitative SERS Analysis of Surface Contaminants Based on Au@4-MBA@Ag Core–Shell Nanorods

A portable and highly reproducible lab-on-capillary surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) platform was developed using a specially designed homemade device for rapid on-site SERS measurement. In particular, this platform was composed of a capillary with a tiny orifice, which allows an effective and lossless sample extraction, resulting in high SERS performance. The capillary-based plasmonic substrate was prepared by compactly assembling Au@Ag core-shell nanorods (NRs) embedded with the 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (4-MBA) molecule as an internal standard onto the inner wall of a capillary tube. The fabrication process is facile and convenient with no requirement for complicated procedures. The exclusively prepared nanoparticles were able to significantly improve the signal consistency and overcome the limitations of reliable quantitative SERS analysis compared with conventional methods. Importantly, it was found that this capillary-based substrate with higher sensitivity was essentially attributed to more valid nanoparticles in the effective laser excitation region derived from the unique structure of the capillary. Furthermore, the applicability of the Au@4-MBA@Ag nanorod-decorated capillary for the quantitative identification of fungicides (malachite green and crystal violet) on the shell was demonstrated. As a result, this proposed lab-on-capillary sensor holds promising practical potential for rapid on-site analysis, especially for various contaminants on an uneven surface.