Ag nanoparticle-modified porous nickel foam nanotemplate: An efficient surface-enhanced Raman scattering platform for the rapid detection of artemisinin

Because of the advantages of rapid sampling and real-time detection, the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technique provides greater potential for ultrasensitive detection of active components in traditional Chinese medicine. In this paper, an ultrasensitive SERS detection system was successfully designed using controllable magnetron sputtering technology for the rapid and quantitative detection of artemisinin, a traditional Chinese medicine. Using nickel foam (NF) with a three-dimensional porous mesh structure as a template, Ag nanoparticle layers were sputtered on the NF surface by the magnetron sputtering technique to prepare Ag-NF-20 (the magnetron sputtering time was 20 min) SERS substrates with high SERS performance. According to the SERS signal response of the R6G molecule on the Ag-NF-20 substrate, this efficient SERS platform showed excellent Raman signals and enhanced performance and time-stability. The results suggested that owing to the abundant electromagnetic enhancement “hot spots” distributed on Ag-NF-20 nanostructures, an experimental enhancement factor value of 6.57 × 105 was obtained. The time-stability for 30 days in an atmospheric environment was also determined, which revealed that a minimum decrease of 2.6% in Raman signal intensity was recorded, indicating the excellent time-stability of the Ag-NF-20 substrate. Furthermore, when applying this in the detection of artemisinin, the limit of detection value for artemisinin was 1 × 10−4 ng/ml. Therefore, the Ag-NF-20 SERS substrate has great potential for trace detection of other active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine and is expected to expand the detection of pharmacodynamic substances in clinical drugs.