Recent advances in nanofabrication techniques for SERS substrates and their applications in food safety analysis

ABSTRACT

The ability to analyze food safety and quality in a quick, sensitive, and reliable manner is of high importance in food industry. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), which is popular for its significant enhancement, excellent sensitivity, and the fingerprinting ability to identify special molecules, has shown vast potential for rapid detection of chemical constitutes, chemical contaminants, and pathogens in food sample. For SERS, the enhancement of Raman signals is related to not only the SERS-active substrates, but also the interactions between sample and substrates. In the current review, colloidal and solid surface-based substrates are briefly described, fabrication techniques for SERS substrates are presented, and applications of SERS for food matrixes, correlation between substrates and food samples are also introduced. Finally, some outlook on further developments is presented. The current review is therefore intended to provide a comprehensive overview on the nanofabrication of SERS substrates, and the potential of applying SERS as an important food analysis platform.

KEYWORDS:

• surface-enhanced Raman scattering
• food safety analysis platform
• nanostructure
• nanofabrication
• small molecules
• pathogens
• proteins

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the International S&T Cooperation Program of China (2015DFA71150) for its support. This research was also supported by the Collaborative Innovation Major Special Projects of Guangzhou City (201508020097, 201604020007, 201604020057), the Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Plan Projects (2015A020209016, 2016A040403040), the Key Projects of Administration of Ocean and Fisheries of Guangdong Province (A201401C04), the National Key Technologies R&D Program (2015BAD19B03), the International and Hong Kong - Macau - Taiwan Collaborative Innovation Platform of Guangdong Province on Intelligent Food Quality Control and Process Technology & Equipment (2015KGJHZ001), the Guangdong Provincial R & D Centre for the Modern Agricultural Industry on Non-destructive Detection and Intensive Processing of Agricultural Products and the Common Technical Innovation Team of Guangdong Province on Preservation and Logistics of Agricultural Products (2016LM2154).