Decoration of Cu films on the microstructural mantis wing as flexible substrates for surface enhanced Raman scattering

Abstract Noble metal decorated biological materials were applied to surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), which have been widely used in the detection of organic molecules. In this work, a low-cost, environment-friendly and suitable for large-scale production SERS substrate for rhodamine 6G (R6G), 4-aminothiophenol (4-ATP) and crystal violet (CV) detection has been fabricated by depositing copper (Cu) on the surface of mantis wings (MWs) by magnetron sputtering. In the process of preparation, we improved the enhancement effect of the substrate by controlling the sputtering time of Cu. Experiments showed that when the SERS substrate was prepared at the sputtering time of 30 min, the substrate exhibited excellent performance. The SERS performance of the fabricated flexible Cu/MW substrate when employed R6G as probe molecules shows an enhancement factor (EF) of 1.19 × 10 5 over 10 −3  M R6G solution. Besides, the prepared SERS substrate exhibits high sensitivity, strong stability and reproducibility. Sensitivity for relatively low R6G concentration (10 −6  M), 4-ATP concentration (10 −6  M) and CV (10 −6  M) were reported.