Magnetic and pneumatic actuation of polymeric microneedles for plasmonic hot-spot engineering and molecular sensing.

ABSTRACT: Soft actuators offer dynamic control of plasmonic particle gaps for hot-spot engineering, yet their potential remains underexplored. Here, we demonstrate two polymeric microneedle platforms designed for precise hot-spot generation and molecular sensing. The first employs magnetic actuation, embedding Fe particles into microneedles to enable reversible deformation under magnetic fields, with stable performance over 1000 cycles. Decorating these structures with silver nanoparticles yields strong surface-enhanced Raman scattering amplification. The second utilizes pneumatic actuation with polydimethylsiloxane microneedles, providing greater flexibility and tip contact area under negative pressure. When functionalized with gold nanoparticles, the microneedles achieve ~3.0-fold higher Raman sig

SUBMITTER: Aytac Arslan A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12647648 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature