Surface analysis using shell-isolated nanoparticle-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a powerful fingerprint vibrational spectroscopy with a single-molecule detection limit, but its applications are generally restricted to 'free-electron–like' metal substrates such as Au, Ag and Cu nanostructures. We have invented a shell-isolated nanoparticle-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SHINERS) technique, using Au-core silica-shell nanoparticles (Au@SiO 2 NPs), which makes SERS universally applicable to surfaces with any composition and any morphology. This protocol describes how to prepare shell-isolated nanoparticles (SHINs) with different well-controlled core sizes (55 and 120 nm), shapes (nanospheres, nanorods and nanocubes) and shell thicknesses (1–20 nm). It then describes how to apply SHINs to Pt and Au single-crystal surfaces with different facets in an electrochemical environment, on Si wafer surfaces adsorbed with hydrogen, on ZnO nanorods, and on living bacteria and fruit. With this method, SHINs can be prepared for use in ∼3 h, and each subsequent procedure for SHINERS measurement requires 1–2 h.