A robust, flexible adhesive tape-based SERS substrate fabricated by polymer etching and subsequent Au coating on the exposed SiO nanosphere monolayer.

With the rapid development of trace detection, high-performance flexible surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates have enjoyed steady growth of interest. In this paper, a facile method to improve the robustness of the flexible SERS substrate via the synergistic effect of rigid SiO nanospheres and flexible tape was demonstrated for the first time. In detail, the spin-coated SiO nanosphere monolayer was transferred from the host silicon wafer into the tape by peeling-off process, followed by O plasma etching of tape polymer to expose the nanospheres, and final Au coating to form plentiful SERS "hotspots".