Multifunctional Chemical Sensing Platform Based on Dual-Resonant Infrared Plasmonic Perfect Absorber for On-Chip Detection of Poly(ethyl cyanoacrylate)

Abstract

Multifunctional chemical sensing is highly desirable in industry, agriculture, and environmental sciences, but remains challenging due to the diversity of chemical substances and reactions. Surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy can potentially address the above problems by ultra-sensitive detection of molecular fingerprint vibrations. Here, a multifunctional chemical sensing platform based on dual-resonant SEIRA device for sensitive and multifunctional on-chip detection of poly(ethyl cyanoacrylate) (PECA) is reported. It is experimentally demonstrated that the SEIRA sensing platform achieves multiple functions required by the PECA glue industry, including vibrational detection, thickness measurement, and in situ observation of polymerization and curing, which are usually realized by separately using a spectrometer, a viscometer, and an ellipsometer in the past. Specifically, the all-in-one sensor offers a dual-band fingerprint vibration identification, sub-nm level detection limit, and ultrahigh sensitivity of 0.76%/nm in thickness measurement, and second-level resolution in real-time observation of polymerization and curing. This work not only provides a valuable toolkit for ultra-sensitive and multifunctional on-chip detection of PECA, but also gives new insights into the SEIRA technology for multi-band, multi-functional, and on-chip chemical sensing.