Fabrication of gold nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide substrate of at-home blood phenylalanine measuring device for phenylketonuria
A method for fabrication of a gold nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide (NAAO) substrate used in coordination with a handheld Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) device for detecting phenylalanine (Phe) in a sample collected from a subject, the method comprising forming a three-phase system on top of a multilayered nanoporous aluminum layer of the gold NAAO substrate; injecting a cosolvent solution into the three-phase system, wherein the cosolvent solution comprises gold nanoparticles; forming a gold layer on top of the multilayered nanoporous aluminum layer, and drying the gold NAAO substrate.
1. A method for fabrication of a gold nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide (NAAO) substrate used in coordination with a handheld Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) device for detecting phenylalanine (Phe) in a sample collected from a subject, the method comprising:
forming a three-phase system on top of a multilayered nanoporous aluminum layer of the gold NAAO substrate; wherein the three-phase system comprises an air phase, a water phase, and an oil phase; and
injecting a cosolvent solution into the three-phase system, wherein the cosolvent solution comprises gold nanoparticles; and
drying the gold NAAO substrate by evaporating the water phase and the oil phase;
wherein the gold NAAO substrate formed is used in coordination with the handheld SERS device.
2. The method for fabrication of a gold NAAO substrate according to claim 1 , wherein
the three-phase system comprises air/water/oil interfaces.
3. The method for fabrication of a gold NAAO substrate according to claim 2 , wherein
the cosolvent solution is injected into at least one of the air/water/oil interfaces.
4. The method for fabrication of a gold NAAO substrate according to claim 3 , wherein
the cosolvent solution is injected into the water/oil interface.
5. The method for fabrication of a gold NAAO substrate according to claim 4 , wherein the air/water/oil interfaces promote the migration of the gold nanoparticles into a two-dimensional film structure after the cosolvent is injected into the three-phase system.
6. The method for fabrication of the gold NAAO substrate according to claim 1 , wherein the cosolvent comprises ethanol.
7. The method for fabrication of the gold NAAO substrate according to claim 1 , the oil phase comprises hexane.
8. The method for fabrication of the gold NAAO substrate according to claim 1 further comprising:
forming a gold layer on top of the multilayered nanoporous aluminum layer.
9. The method for fabrication of the gold NAAO substrate according to claim 8 further comprising: drying the gold NAAO substrate.
10. The method for fabrication of the gold NAAO substrate according to claim 1 , wherein the multilayered nanoporous aluminum layer comprises an aluminum layer base, and a nanoporous alumina layer grown on top of the aluminum layer base.
11. The method for fabrication of the gold NAAO substrate according to claim 2 , wherein the nanoporous alumina layer comprises a plurality of reflective alumina nanocavities.
12. The method for fabrication of the gold NAAO substrate according to claim 1 , wherein the gold nanoparticles are nanorods.
13. The method for fabrication of the gold NAAO substrate according to claim 1 , wherein the gold nanoparticles are nanospheres.
14. The method for fabrication of the gold NAAO substrate according to claim 1 , wherein the gold NAAO substrate has a high surface area to volume ratio.
15. The method for fabrication of the gold NAAO substrate according to claim 8 , wherein the gold layer is a monolayer.