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As an advanced analytical tool, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has broad applications in identification of colorants in paints and glazes, hazard detection to ensure food safety, biomedicine and diagnosis, environmental monitoring, detection of explosives and forensic science. In this review, main types of plasmonic substrates, which include solid substrate with metallic nanostructures and chemically synthesized noble metal colloids, and their fabrication methods are reviewed. The design principles for fabrication of ultrasensitive plasmonic substrates for SERS are presented on the basis of published literature. Finally, various applications of SERS substrates are described, indicating the potential of this technique in practical applications. As an ultrasensitive detection method, SERS is at the core of a rapidly expanding research field., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Molecule-coated nanoparticles are hybrid materials which can be engineered with novel properties. The molecular coating of metal nanoparticles can provide chemical functionality, enabling assembly of the nanoparticles that are important for applications, such as biosensing devices. Herein, we report a new self-assembly of core-satellite gold nanoparticles linked by a simple amino acid l-Cysteine for biosensing of Cu(2+). The plasmonic properties of core-satellite nano-assemblies were investigated, a new red shifted absorbance peak from about 600 to 800 nm was found, with specific wavelength depending on ratios with assembly of large and small gold nanoparticles. The spectral features obtained using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) provided strong evidence for the assembly of the Cu(2+) ions to the L-Cysteine molecules leading to the successful formation of the core-satellite Cu(l-Cysteine) complex on the gold surfaces. In addition, a linear relationship between the concentration of mediating Cu(2+) and absorbance of self-assembled gold nanoparticles (GNPs) at 680 nm was obtained. These results strongly address the potential strategy for applying the functionalized GNPs as novel biosensing tools in trace detections of certain metal ions., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)