Preparation of Stabilizer-Free Silver Nanoparticle-Coated Micropipettes as Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Substrate for Single Cell Detection.

In this work, we established a convenient while reproduceable method for stabilizer-free silver nanoparticle (AgNP)-coated micropipettes by the combination of magnetron sputtering and surface coupling agent. The clear surfaces of the AgNPs are beneficial for absorbing biological or functional molecules on their surfaces. By optimizing the operating parameters, such as sputtering current and sputtering time, the tip of micropipettes coated with AgNPs exhibits excellent surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) performance.