Characterization of Aggregating Agents towards Sensitive Optical Detection of Tryptophan Using Lab-on-a-Chip

The analysis of body fluids is desirable to minimize the invasiveness of diagnostic tests and non-destructive forensic investigations. In this study, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is employed for sensitive and reproducible detection of biomolecule focusing on ‘hot spots’ generation and automated flow system. Here, we have demonstrated how the plasmon frequency of nanoparticles can be tuned using different aggregating agents for optimal SERS signals. We have compared the effect of different aggregating agents on silver colloids and the resulting enhancement in Raman signals for Tryptophan which is an important amino acid present as an integral component of various body fluids including blood, saliva, tears, and cerebrospinal fluid. The automated segmented flow system, Lab-on-a-chip (LOC), is employed to trap the analyte in droplets while obtaining reproducible SERS spectra of Tryptophan at μM concentration. Further for a thorough interpretation of enhanced vibrational modes of Tryptophan, a theoretical approach has been applied. By combining both experimental and computational approaches we have identified the most preferable site of Tryptophan for interaction with metal nanoparticles and accurately assigned the enhanced Raman bands. The present study demonstrates that the union of SERS and microfluidics has the potential for spectral fingerprinting of biomolecules present in body fluids with high sensitivity.