Quantitative Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy: Challenges, Strategies, and Prospects

Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) is highly attractive as an analytical technique owing to its high sensitivity, distinctive molecular specificity, and speed of analysis. It offers the potential to match the sensitivity and molecular specificity of established techniques like Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry in a more affordable, faster, and portable format, providing unique solutions for challenging analytical problems such as bedside diagnostics and in-field forensic analysis. Despite these benefits, SERS currently remains a specialized technique and has not yet successfully entered the mainstream of analytical chemistry. This transition is hindered primarily by challenges in achieving robust, reliable, and especially quantitative measurements in real-world applications. Achieving quantitative SERS requires addressing core issues arising from the heterogeneous nature of enhancing substrates and the complexity of real-life samples. This perspective summarizes the fundamental challenges associated with signal variability and matrix interference. It then details modern strategies focused on standardizing performance metrics, with particular emphasis on the newly proposed SERS Performance Factor for substrate evaluation, alongside the development of advanced quantification methods (e.g., internal standardization and digital SERS) and rapid sample pretreatment protocols. Finally, emerging prospects, including the deployment of Artificial Intelligence for enhanced analysis and advancements in deep-tissue SERS sensing, are explored as critical drivers for integrating SERS into routine analytical practice.