Aluminum foil and Silicon wafer: novel, cost-effective substrates with high
sensitivity for sandwich SERS immunoassay
Alisher Sultangaziyev, Zhanar Kunushpayeva, Alisher Rapikov, Saida Zhunussova,
Aktilek Akhmetova, Adil Les, and Rostislav Bukasov*
Department of Chemistry, School of Science and Technology, Nazarbayev University,
Astana, Kazakhstan
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Abstract
We continue to investigate the application of aluminum foil and Si wafers as novel, cost-
effective substrates for sandwich immunoassay by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy
(SERS). Untreated and unmodified Al foil, silicon wafer as well as gold films are used as a
substrate for sandwich SERS immunoassay to detect human immunoglobulin (hIgG). The
capture antibody is non-specifically adsorbed in this assay on Au, Al foil or Si surface and the
assay duration is within 24 hours. The limits of detection (LODs) for hIgG on Au film, Al foil
and Si wafer were at the same order of magnitude 34 pM (1.5 ng/mL), 39 pM (1.7 ng/ml) and
26 pM (1.1 ng/ml), respectively. Sensitivity as a slope of calibration plot decreased in the raw
Au film, Al foil and silicon. In addition, calibration curves for all three substrates showed a
good logarithmic relationship, with R-squared values for Au film (0.97), Al foil (0.97), and Si
wafer (0.99), which demonstrates the applicability of these substrates for detection of
biomarkers, especially Al foil and Si wafer considering their low cost and high accessibility.
Incident
Light
SERS
signal
10 pM
0.03 pM
References
1. Gudun, K.; Elemessova, Z.; Khamkhash, L.; Ralchenko, E.; Bukasov, R., J. Nanomater. 2017 (2017)
9182025.
2. Porter, M. D.; Lipert, R. J.; Siperko, L. M.; Wang, G.; Narayanana, R., Chem Soc Rev. 37 (2008) 1001-
1011.
3. Wang, Z.; Zong, S.; Wu, L.; Zhu, D.; Cui, Y., Chem Rev. 117 (2017) 7910-7963.