From lab to field: surface-enhanced Raman scattering-based sensing strategies for on-site analysis

Abstract Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) owns high sensitivity, excellent selectivity and strong resistance to water and air, and can be used for nondestructive detection by portable equipment without tedious sample pretreatment. These merits make SERS an attractive choice for on-site analysis. Nowadays, more and more SERS-based sensing strategies have been established to increase the sensitivity and selectivity, as well as simplify operation processes and reduce testing cost for field analysis. These lead to the rapid development in research and commercialization. However, SERS-based on-site analysis is still in the early stage and needs to be further exploited. In this review, we summarize and evaluate the related works in recent five years from the aspect of analytical work flow, which consists of three parts: target signal collection, target signal amplification and target signal readout. Then, five different application scenes of these sensing strategies including medical diagnosis, environmental protection, food safety, forensic analysis and cultural relics protection are introduced, followed by the discussion of challenges and development tendency for future works. This comprehensive review will provide the design guidelines for researchers and engineers to explore novel testing strategies on field, which may eventually promote the launch of commercial products for our daily life.