Plasmorobotic: Plasmonic engineering with soft robotic systems

Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) is a powerful analytical tool that allows highly accurate structural detection at ultralow concentration. The enhancement mechanism in SERS is mainly originated from the electrical field magnification through the excitation of localized surface plasmon resonances. These regions of highly intense local electric fields are called as "Hot-spots/Controlling and manipulating the plasmonic hot-spots is a challenging issue especially for the large scale production. In this thesis, a simple but versatile strategy based on the self-folding of polymeric materials is proposed to overcome these problems and bring a new perspective to the SERS field. The distance between plasmonic nanostructures was controlled by a light sensitive soft robotic system. Manipulation of hot-spot formations result in a Raman signal enhancement up to 70 folds for the probe methylene blue molecule. In addition to SERS studies, sample collection and analysis with soft robotic systems with the help of a magnetic field have been successfully implimented. Our results clearly demonstrated that soft robotic platforms offer unforeseen possibilities in the field of SERS.