Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has been recognized
as a promising label-free technology for clinical monitoring due to
its high sensitivity and multiplexing ability, which should accelerate
the screening of important drugs in the blood and plasma of cancer
patients in a simpler, faster, and less-expensive manner. In this
work, bimetallic Ag–Au and Ag–Cu alloy microflowers
(MFs) with tunable surface compositions were fabricated on a glass
cover slip by simple thermolysis of a metal alkyl ammonium halide
precursor and used as SERS substrates for the sensitive detection
of anticancer drug mitoxantrone (MTO). Two different laser excitation
sources, 532 and 632.8 nm, were used to explore the possibility of
surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering. The Ag–Cu substrate
showed superior detection capability over Ag–Au, whereby the
sensor recorded a noteworthy “limit of detection” value
of 1 fM for MTO. Theoretical electromagnetic field maps were simulated
on appropriately chosen plasmonic systems to compare the electromagnetic
field enhancements with the experimental SERS efficiencies of the
substrates. Further, using a 10% Ag–Cu substrate, efficient
multiplexing detection of MTO was demonstrated with another anticancer
drug doxorubicin (DOX) in water and mouse blood plasma.
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