Facile, Flexible, Fast': Highly sensitive and Low-cost paper sensor for real time spike protein sensing with SERS.

[Display omitted] • Facile, Flexible, and Fast sensing of spike protein with SERS paper sensor. • Low-cost / Ecofriendly green assisted production of spherical silver nanoparticles. • Paper sensor detectability is 2.4 pg/ul of spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 virus. • Spike protein sensing in saliva is achieved with SERS paper sensor. • Lab on paper ensures environment sustainability by its safe disposal. Rapid investigation on the detection of spike protein with paper sensor is projected with Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS). SERS sensor with lab on paper is preceded with facile, cost-effective strategy. Silver nanoparticles with average size of 20–30 nm were produced by green chemistry approaches, followed by loading the nanoparticles on hydrophobic paper surfaces. The very low %RSD (∼1.5) with mapping scan ensembles high reproducibility. Spike protein detection analysis derived the prominent finger print regions of amide bands as well abundant amnio acids (Phenylalanine-1003 cm−1, Tryptophan- 680 cm−1, Tyrosine-1473 cm−1) respectively. The detectability of sensor is gauged to be 2.4 pg / µL. Real time analysis on human saliva spiked with spike protein exhibited diagnosis within 2 min. Developed paper sensor provide us the scope of SERS technique to bring state of art in early detection of covid infections and safe disposal after its use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]