SERS articles from across Nature Portfolio

Electrochemical surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy measurements involve the collection of greatly enhanced Raman spectra at the electrified interface of nanostructured metal surfaces. In this Primer, Brosseau et al. describe the mechanisms of electrochemical surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and important experimental details as well as data preprocessing, interpretation and analysis.

Here, the authors simultaneously capture dynamic Raman spectral evidence of Ru surfaces, interfacial water, *H and *OH intermediates, and the interactions between them, demonstrating the regulation of Ru valence state on interfacial water and intermediates for catalytic activity improvement.

Shell-isolated nanoparticle-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SHINERS) is a variation of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) that uses shell-isolated nanoparticles (SHINs) to prevent direct contact between the core of the nanoparticle and the tested substances. In this Primer, Zhang et al. describe the design considerations for shell-isolated nanoparticles, relevant experimental instrument set-ups and ways to ensure experimental reproducibility and data analysis.

The preparation of Pickering emulsions from nanoparticles commonly requires modification of the particles’ surface chemistry. Here, the authors demonstrate a chemical modifier-free approach for the preparation of long-term stable Pickering emulsions for SERS sensing and catalytic applications.

This protocol combines shell-isolated nanoparticle-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations to unravel the directional molecular features of interfacial water, enabling a better understanding of electrocatalysis.

Most SERS-active nanostructures suffer from low robustness against misalignment to field polarization. Here, the authors demonstrate three-dimensional nanoframes of octahedral geometry, with two rims engraved on each facet, as polarization-independent SERS nanoprobes.

Raman intensity fluctuations in single-molecule measurements can now be followed with megahertz temporal sensitivity.

The transfer of chirality is known to occur through chemical bonds. Now, chiral biomolecules have been observed to impart some of their optical properties to a spatially separated achiral dye — with the transfer mediated by plasmon resonance from an achiral metallic nanostructure.