Surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrate based on silver nanoparticle-deposited phospholipid multilayer

Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate was fabricated by directly depositing Ag onto a multilayer lipid membrane consisting of 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) lipids. The Ag nanoparticles were spontaneously formed on the POPC membrane surface during deposition and using 4-mercaptopyridine as a probe molecule, significant SERS enhancement was observed on the Ag nanoparticle-deposited POPC membrane over the Ag nanoparticles without POPC. It was conjectured that the presence of the POPC molecules assisted in forming a monolayer coverage of the analyte molecules on the nanoparticle surface, hence bringing the adsorbate molecules in closer proximity with the metal surface.This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MEST) (No. 2012000815 )