SERS encoded nanoparticle heterodimers for the ultrasensitive detection of folic acid

In this paper, gold-silver nanoparticle (AuNP-AgNP) heterodimers were assembled with highly yield as an active SERS substrate, based on antigen-antibody immunoreaction. The developed SERS sensor has successful achieved the ultrasensitive detection of folic acid (FA) with the limit of detection (LOD) as 0.86 pg/mL. And the linear range was from 0.005 ng/mL to 1 ng/mL. The results also demonstrated that this developed method showed high specificity and excellent recovery for the human serum samples, indicating its promising potential in bio-diagnosis and the environmental monitoring.