Plasmonic Colloidosomes as Three-Dimensional SERS Platforms with Enhanced Surface Area for Multiphase Sub-Microliter Toxin Sensing

Colloidosomes are robust microcapsules attractive for molecular sensing because of their characteristic micron size, large specific surface area, and dual-phase stability. However, current colloidosome sensors are limited to qualitative fluorogenic receptor-based detection, which restrict their applicability to a narrow range of molecules. Here, we introduce plasmonic colloidosome constructed from Ag nanocubes as an emulsion-based 3D SERS platform. The colloidosomes exhibit excellent mechanical robustness, flexible size tunability, versatility to merge, and ultrasensitivity in SERS quantitation of food/industrial toxins down to sub-femtomole levels. Using just 0.5 μL of sample volumes, our plasmonic colloidosomes exhibit >3000-fold higher SERS sensitivity over conventional suspension platform. Notably, we demonstrate the first high-throughput multiplex molecular sensing across multiple liquid phases.