Dendric nanostructures for SARS-CoV-2 proteins detection based on surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy

Infrared spectroscopy is a non-destructive and rapid characterization tool that can distinguish different viral proteins by spectral details. However, traditional infrared spectroscopy has insufficient absorption signal intensity contrast when measuring low-concentration samples. In this work, surface enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy is proposed by deploying a novel nanostructure array as SEIRA substrates. An array of gold dendric nanostructures are designed and fabricated with a precision resonance control to achieve surface enhancement covering a broadband molecular “finger-print” region. The spectral positions of the multiple resonances accurately correspond to the characteristic absorption peaks of the SARS-CoV-2 proteins. An approach for SARS-CoV-2 protein detection based on SEIRA spectroscopy is then proposed. A low concentration detection of 40 μg/ml diluted SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein is experimentally demonstrated and the enhancement factor (EF) achieved is in good agreement with simulation results. The SEIRA methodology based on broadband resonance nanostructure design provides a systematic approach for sensitive, non-destructive and rapid protein molecular detection, which could be extended to various kind of molecular characterization and biomedical diagnostics.