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Highly flexible copper tape decorated with Ag nanoarrays as ultrasensitive SERS platforms for multi-hazardous pollutant sensing

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Abstract

A highly flexible and cost-effective copper tape decorated with silver nanoparticles (Cu-TAg) has been developed for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) sensing of multi-hazardous environmental pollutants. Highly ordered and spherical-shaped silver nanoarrays have been fabricated using a low-cost thermal evaporation method. The structural, morphological, and optical properties of Cu-TAg sensors have been studied and correlated to the corresponding SERS performances. The size of nanoparticles has been successively tuned by varying the deposition time from 5 to 25 s. The nanoparticle sizes were enhanced with an increase in the evaporation time. SERS investigations have revealed that the sensing potential is subsequently improved with an increase in deposition time up to 10 s and then deteriorates with further increase in Ag deposition. The highest SERS activity was acquired for an optimum size of ~ 37 nm; further simulation studies confirmed this observation. Moreover, Cu-TAg sensors exhibited high sensitivity, reproducibility, and recycling characteristics to be used as excellent chemo-sensors. The lower detection limit estimation revealed that it can sense even in the pico-molar range for sensing of rhodamine 6G and methylene blue. The estimated enhancement factor of the sensor is found to be 9.4 × 107. Molecular-specific sensing of a wide range of pollutants such as rhodamine 6G, alizarin red, methylene blue, butylated hydroxy anisole, and penicillin–streptomycin is demonstrated with high efficiencies for micromolar spiked samples. Copper tape functionalized with Ag arrays thus demonstrated to be a promising candidate for low-cost and reusable chemo-sensors for environmental remediation applications.

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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Dr. T. R. Ravindran, Head, Light Scattering Studies Section, Materials Science Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam 603 102, Tamil Nadu, India, for his valuable guidance and constant support for this research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Advanced Materials Research, Research Institute of Sciences and Engineering, University of Sharjah, PO Box 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

    Mohamed Shameer, Soumya Columbus, Hussain Alawadhi, Kais Daoudi & Mounir Gaidi

  2. Department of Physics, Sathyabama Institute of Science & Technology, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, 600 119, India

    Mohamed Shameer & Kabali Vijai Anand

  3. Department of Applied Physics and Astronomy, University of Sharjah, PO Box 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

    Hussain Alawadhi, Kais Daoudi & Mounir Gaidi

  4. Centre for Ocean Research, Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, 600 119, Tamil Nadu, India

    Kasivelu Govindaraju

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  1. Mohamed Shameer
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Contributions

Conceptualization, methodology, and writing—original draft preparation: Mohamed Shameer; supervision, writing—review, and editing: Kabali Vijai Anand; methodology, formal analysis, and writing—review: Soumya Columbus; writing—review and editing: Hussain Alawadhi; writing—review and editing: Kais Daoudi; writing—review and editing: Mounir Gaidi; writing—review and editing: Kasivelu Govindaraju.

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Correspondence to Kabali Vijai Anand.

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Shameer, M., Anand, K.V., Columbus, S. et al. Highly flexible copper tape decorated with Ag nanoarrays as ultrasensitive SERS platforms for multi-hazardous pollutant sensing. Microchim Acta 191, 193 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-024-06276-6

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