ИСТИНА

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is today a highly sensitive and selective method of chemical analysis for the determination (including multiplex) of a wide range of biologically active substances and ecotoxicants. At the same time, the classical SERS sensors, widely known today, based on the noble metals silver and gold, despite their sometimes unique analytical characteristics, have a number of disadvantages, namely 1) a limited range of analyzed compounds due to the mismatch of the spectral characteristics of the surface and the analyte, 2) lack of affinity of analytes to the surface of metal nanostructures, 3) low reproducibility of the analytical signal, which in some cases leads to the impossibility of performing quantitative analysis, 4) instability during storage of sensor elements in air and during operation, 5) photocatalytic ability to degrade components of indicator systems and themselves determined analytes, 6) toxicity of SERS-active surfaces based on metal nanoparticles in relation to a number of biological objects if it is necessary to perform ex vivo or in vivo analysis, 7) difficulties in applying the method to ensure continuous monitoring. According to the authors of the report, a promising approach to solve the problems described above, including significantly expanding the analytical capabilities of the SERS method, is the development of fundamental approaches to the creation of indicator systems and surfaces structured at the nanoscale that have specified (required for actual analytes) optical characteristics. This report will primarily discuss the prospects of SERS sensing systems in the analysis of biological samples and samples of environmental monitoring. The work was carried out with financial support by the Russian Science Foundation 23-13-00276.