Recent developments in optofluidic-surface-enhanced Raman scattering systems: Design, assembly, and advantages

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) coupled with micro- or nanofluidics integrated into optofluidic devices offer many advantages over conventional SERS conducted under static conditions. Higher reproducibility, larger intensity, as well as greater enhancement can be achieved by efficient mixing of analytes and SERS enhancers under a continuous flow. Progress and advances in the past 10 years, including the design of channels and efficient mixing conditions, assemblies of SERS substrates for optimal enhancement, and advantages of optofluidic-SERS analysis, are reviewed. Recent results show that optofluidic-SERS effectively overcomes many of the difficulties and limitations plaguing conventional SERS and the novel technique has enormous application potential.