A Ag-molecularly imprinted polymer composite for efficient surface-enhanced Raman scattering activities under a low-energy laser.

In this work, we have fabricated flower-shaped Ag particles coated with a molecularly imprinted polymer (Ag@MIP) based on the molecular imprinting technique and SERS technology. Although Raman signals decrease with the reducing laser power, Ag@MIP could sensitively detect the target molecules even at a laser power as low as 0.14 μW. As a new SERS substrate, Ag@MIP shows high enhancement under low irradiation effectively, which limits the possible laser induced effects in the measurement process, improving the signal-to-noise ratio and repeatability. This platform has potential for the development of next-generation SERS spectroscopy.