Facile synthesis of gold nanohexagons on graphene templates in Raman spectroscopy for biosensing cancer and cancer stem cells

• Prepare graphene–gold nanocomposite for cancer biosensing.
• Discriminate among cancer cells and stem cells using SERS.
• Enhance SERS intensity for high biosensing efficiency.
• Label the Raman peaks of cancer cells.

Several surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates were prepared based on in situ nucleation of gold nanohexagons (Au) on graphene (G) nanosheets (Au@G), G, Au nanoparticles and Au conjugated G nanomaterials. These were applied to enhance Raman scattering and to differentiate human breast normal, cancer and cancer stem cells. These SERS substrates at concentrations of 100 µg/1×104 cells led to 5.4 fold increase in detecting breast cancer cells (BCCs) and 4.8 fold of sensitivity for detecting breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) and they were able to identify and differentiate between normal cells, cancer cells and cancer stem cells. These approaches are rapid, simple and reliable for healthy normal cells, cancer cells and cancer stem cell detection which have a huge potential for cancer research for medical or biomedicine applications.