posted on 2016-11-29, 00:00authored byYuyan Zhang, Wen Zhou, Yang Xue, Jie Yang, Dingbin Liu
The
development of highly sensitive, selective, nondestructive,
and multiplexed imaging modalities is essential for latent fingerprint
(LFP) identification and fingerprint residues detection. Herein, we
present a versatile strategy to identify LFPs and to probe the multiple
trace residues in a single LFP simultaneously. With the purpose of
achieving high sensitivity, we for the first time introduced a polydopamine
(PDA)-triggered Au growth method to prepare superbright and multiplex
surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) tags, which were endowed
with high selectivity by conjugating with specific antibodies. In
combination with a rapid Raman mapping technique, the sensitivity
of the SERS probes was down to picogram scale and all the three levels
of LFP features can be clearly seen. More significantly, the multiplexed
imaging of diverse residues in a single LFP provides more accurate
information than that using monochromatic imaging of individuals alone.
The high analytical figures of merit enable this approach great promise
for use in the fields ranging from chemical detection to molecular
imaging.