Recent advances of Au@Ag core–shell SERS-based biosensors

Abstract

The methodological advancements in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technique with nanoscale materials based on noble metals, Au, Ag, and their bimetallic alloy Au–Ag, has enabled the highly efficient sensing of chemical and biological molecules at very low concentration values. By employing the innovative various type of Au, Ag nanoparticles and especially, high efficiency Au@Ag alloy nanomaterials as substrate in SERS based biosensors have revolutionized the detection of biological components including; proteins, antigens antibodies complex, circulating tumor cells, DNA, and RNA (miRNA), etc. This review is about SERS-based Au/Ag bimetallic biosensors and their Raman enhanced activity by focusing on different factors related to them. The emphasis of this research is to describe the recent developments in this field and conceptual advancements behind them. Furthermore, in this article we apex the understanding of impact by variation in basic features like effects of size, shape varying lengths, thickness of core–shell and their influence of large-scale magnitude and morphology. Moreover, the detailed information about recent biological applications based on these core–shell noble metals, importantly detection of receptor binding domain (RBD) protein of COVID-19 is provided.