Multi-functional plasmonic fabrics: A flexible SERS substrate and anti-counterfeiting security labels with tunable encoding information

Multi-functional plasmonic fabric comprised of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) and cotton gauze was fabricated through an in-situ growth method. Ag NPs with high density were immobilized on the surface of cotton fibers. The plasmonic cotton gauze exhibits excellent flexible features, temporal stability and SERS enhancement factors close to 10 5  × . The plasmonic cotton gauze was labelled with multiplexed Raman probes and used for anti-counterfeiting applications. The encoding information could be readily changed by adjusting the ratio between components in the mixture of Raman probe molecules. This novel strategy could create rich Raman information based on the combination of a few Raman probes, which significantly increases the security levels in anti-counterfeiting. The plasmonic cotton gauze was also employed as a flexible SERS substrate for sensing pesticide from irregular surfaces of orange by a simple swiping process.