SERS Hotspot Engineering by Aerosol Self-Assembly of Plasmonic Ag Nanoaggregates with Tunable Interparticle Distance

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a powerful sensing technique. However, the employment of SERS sensors in practical applications is hindered by high fabrication costs from processes with limited scalability, poor batch-to-batch reproducibility, substrate stability, and uniformity. Here, highly scalable and reproducible flame aerosol technology is employed to rapidly self-assemble uniform SERS sensing films. Plasmonic Ag nanoparticles are deposited on substrates as nanoaggregates with fine control of their interparticle distance. The interparticle distance is tuned by adding a dielectric spacer during nanoparticle synthesis that separates the individual Ag nanoparticles within each nanoaggregate. The dielectric spacer thickness dictates the plasmonic coupling extinction of the deposited nanoaggregates and finely tunes the Raman hotspots. By systematically studying the optical and morphological properties of the developed SERS surfaces, structure–performance relationships are established and the optimal hot-spots occur for interparticle distance of 1 to 1.5 nm among the individual Ag nanoparticles, as also validated by computational modeling, are identified for the highest signal enhancement of a molecular Raman reporter. Finally, the superior stability and batch-to-batch reproducibility of the developed SERS sensors are demonstrated and their potential with a proof-of-concept practical application in food-safety diagnostics for pesticide detection on fruit surfaces is explored.