Femtosecond laser patterned superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic substrates with sequential microdroplet evaporation: breaking the SERS efficiency-sensitivity trade-off
Superhydrophobic surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates allow ultrasensitive molecular detection through microliter-scale droplets. However, their widespread application is hindered by prolonged evaporation processes exceeding one hour. This study develops a sequential microdroplet evaporation strategy using femtosecond laser patterned superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic (SH/SHL) substrates. By sequentially evaporating 1 μL analyte units with sequential heating, solute dispersion caused by sustained thermal exposure can be successfully mitigated. Experimental data reveal this method reduces evaporation time for 8 μL R6G from 82 minutes to 4.3 minutes, while retaining the 10<sup>-14</sup> M detection limit through precise deposition control. The SERS substrate demonstrates an enhancement factor of 8.81 × 10<sup>10</sup>, achieving 19-fold efficiency enhancement over conventional approaches. This innovation effectively resolves the efficiency-sensitivity paradox in SH SERS-based detection systems.
Authors
- Jian Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8046-8687)
- Huan Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6422-8643)
- Lingjian Meng
- Haojun Ma
- Leimin Deng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3361-8822)
- Jing Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0372-9177)
- Jiani Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1396-0487)
- Chunbo Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1510-7946)
- Licun Fang
- Zhicheng Deng
Institutions
- Shenzhen Technology University (CN)
- Huazhong University of Science and Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Optics Express
- Published
- 2025-11-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.566647
- Primary Topic
- Gold and Silver Nanoparticles Synthesis and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00