Addressing SERS challenges of nanoplastics with vertical plasmonic substrates

Shvalya, Vasyl (author), Santhosh, Neelakandan Marath (author), Vengust, Damjan (author), Radošević, Tina (author), Podlogar, Matejka (author), Milanič, Matija (author), Kondo, Hiroki (author), Hori, Masaru (author), Cvelbar, Uroš (author)

Nanoplastics, an increasingly concerning environmental pollutant, are extremely difficult to detect using conventional analytical techniques. Many methods fail in this regard, but surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) offers a promising solution by utilising specialised nanostructures that amplify signals. In this study, we build upon previous nanoparticle-based advancements by introducing grating-like 2D carbon nanowalls with controlled spacing. When coated with a thin gold layer, this network of vertically aligned nanowalls demonstrates high SERS signal enhancement and stability, with measured values fluctuating only within a few per cent (RSD ⁓ 5%). This performance surpasses that of randomly assembled nanoparticle substrates reported in the state-of-the-art and other 3D substrates tested in this study, such as branched carbon nanotubes and vertically aligned carbon nanocones. Our primary objective was to demonstrate that the detection case “particle between the walls:” generates a signal up to an order of magnitude higher than the detection “on top of the ridges”. These results emphasise the importance of near-field enhancements when the investigated particles are in the proximity of hot junctions with confined electric fields. Finally, the vertical nanostructures that allow the trapping of particles between the walls reveal great promise for identifying ultra-small nanoplastics (100 nm and below) using SERS.

• Language: English
• Keywords: nanoplastics, surface enhanced Raman scattering, SERS, vertical nanostructures, plasmonics, nanowalls, 2D nanowalls
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FMF - Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 8 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 69, art. 106780
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-169468
• UDC: 620.1/.2
• ISSN on article: 2468-0230
• DOI: 10.1016/j.surfin.2025.106780
• COBISS.SI-ID: 236978691
• Publication date in RUL: 29.05.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Surfaces and interfaces
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 2468-0230
• COBISS.SI-ID: 526516249

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• Description: A creative commons license that bans commercial use, but the users don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: nanoplastika