Innovations

Featured Research, Tech Insights, Case Studies, Application Notes.

Innovations Research Map

56 published studies, grouped by the field they belong to. Open an area to see the work inside it.

Open an area, then a study, to read it.

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  • The S–S mode at 469 cm⁻¹ and the ring modes at 1394 and 1586 appear only after the silver nanoparticles go on. Illustrative schematic; Can a chromatography column also be the sensor?

    The Glass Column That Separates a Colour and Reads Its Fingerprint at the Same Time
    VAD-SERS turns a single alumina column into both a reversed-phase chromatography medium and a native SERS sensor — separating and fingerprinting food colorants, flagging dye adulteration, and deconvoluting real candy colours, all read in-column on the RAMaker (532 nm).
  • DFT assigns 668 cm⁻¹ to the Ni–O stretch; heavy oxygen-18 pulls it down to 638. Illustrative schematic; How do you prove a nickel–oxygen bond is really there?

    Catching Nickel’s Most Elusive Intermediate — and Proving It With Heavy Oxygen
    A Taiwanese team isolated and crystallised the first terminal nickel–oxygen complex on an unsymmetrical β-diketiminate ligand (Ni–O 1.750 Å), confirming the bond by ¹⁸O isotope-labelled resonance Raman on the MRID (532 nm).
  • Every rhodamine 6G band lifts, and 1648 cm⁻¹ is the one the enhancement factor is measured on. Illustrative schematic; What can a 5.5 nm oxide layer possibly add?

    The 5.5-Nanometre Layer That Turns a Good SERS Chip Into a Femtomolar One
    Inserting a 5.5 nm fluorine-doped tin oxide interlayer between ZnO:Cu nanoneedles and silver nanoparticles lifts a SERS substrate to a 5.95×10⁸ enhancement factor and a 1 femtomolar rhodamine-6G detection limit — every result measured on the MRID (532 nm).
  • The rutile TiO2 modes at 143, 447 and 612 cm⁻¹ brighten as the oxygenated carbon is stripped away, and the D/G ratio falls 1.05 to 0.98. Illustrative schematic; Did the laser reduce the film, or just burn it?

    Two Jobs, One Laser Pass — a Flexible CO Sensor Written Directly Onto Film
    A single femtosecond-laser pass reduces TiO2/graphene-oxide to TiO2/rGO and patterns the electrodes at once, making a flexible, room-temperature CO gas sensor — with Raman on the MRID confirming the reduction.
  • D at 1348 cm⁻¹ counts defects and G at 1591 cm⁻¹ counts graphitic order; the ratio climbs 0.452 to 0.808 with pyrolysis temperature. Illustrative schematic; Which furnace temperature makes the best electrode?

    Two Food Wastes, One Furnace Step — a Supercapacitor Electrode From Coffee and Oranges
    One-step co-pyrolysis of spent coffee grounds and orange peels yields a hierarchical porous carbon that reaches 275.3 F/g at 1 A/g — orange peel acts as a natural activator, with micro-Raman D/G analysis on the MRID linking structure to performance.
  • Light taken in across the NIR-II window relaxes without emitting — it leaves as heat. Illustrative schematic; Where does the absorbed light go, back out or in as heat?

    Painting Cheap Foam With a Nickel Dye Turns Seawater Into Drinking Water With Sunlight
    A family of organonickel bis(dithiolene) complexes, painted onto cheap foam and filter paper, drives solar seawater desalination and dye-wastewater purification above 100% efficiency — with the photothermal energy pathway verified by photoluminescence and absorption on the MRID.
  • The first electron transfer runs through a metal-oxide phase change, and the plating order decides which. Illustrative schematic; Which plating order keeps the electrode active?

    Two Metals, One Plating Order — and Nitrate Becomes Harmless Nitrogen Gas
    A bimetallic Cu-Sn / Zn-Sn electrode reduces nitrate to harmless nitrogen gas at over 90% selectivity — decided by which metal is plated on top — with operando Raman on the MRID revealing why.
  • C–O at 1400 and conjugated C=C at 1565 cm⁻¹ confirm the graphene was reduced around the MOF. Illustrative schematic; How do you know the composite formed at all?

    Two Copper-Carbon Electrodes That Catch Pharmaceuticals in Water — and Show Their Work
    Two MOF-derived copper-carbon electrodes selectively detect acetaminophen and metformin in real water — one reading two drugs at once, the other reaching a 0.054 µg/L limit — with operando Raman proving the mechanism.
  • The CoO bands at 515 and 683 cm⁻¹ convert to Co3O4 on anodization, and back again. Illustrative schematic; What actually grabs the molybdate?

    The Electrode That Grabs Molybdenum When You Switch It On — and Lets Go When You Switch It Off
    Cobalt-oxide-in-carbon electrodes recover molybdate from water by electrosorption — capture under potential, release on reversal, up to 72 mg-Mo/g — with operando Raman proving a CoO→Co3O4 redox mechanism.
  • Bands appear and vanish as the potential is swept — a movie, not a snapshot. Illustrative schematic; What is the electrode surface doing while it works?

    Operando Electrochemical Raman: Watching an Electrode Think
    Operando electrochemical Raman records Raman spectra inside a live electrochemical cell, potential by potential — a movie of the working electrode surface, not a before/after snapshot.
  • Illustrative schematic: a field guide to how Raman and Raman mapping verify photoanodes and photocatalysts for solar water splitting.

    Solar Water Splitting: A Raman Field Guide
    How Raman and Raman mapping verify BiVO4 photoanodes, solar-fuel photoelectrodes, and photocatalytic water treatment across ProTrusTech-featured research.
  • Illustrative schematic: a field guide to the SERS substrates ProTrusTech has helped validate, grouped by the problem each one solves.

    SERS Substrates: A Raman Field Guide
    A guide to the SERS substrates ProTrusTech has helped validate — paper, flexible, silicon, gold and dual-function platforms, grouped by the problem each solves.
  • Oxidation breaks the lattice, so D rises to meet G. Illustrative schematic; Two carbons that look identical — which one did the fish meet?

    Graphene and Graphene Oxide Look Identical — Zebrafish Behavior Says Otherwise
    At real-world environmental concentrations, graphene and graphene oxide each nudge zebrafish behavior differently — and the brain chemistry explains why.
  • Heart rate falls with dose from 0.1 mM; stroke volume, cardiac output and ejection fraction fall with it. Illustrative schematic; Are the two together worse than either alone?

    Copper Oxide Nanoparticles and a Pesticide Synergize to Disrupt a Zebrafish Heart
    Copper oxide nanoparticles and a banned pesticide each mess with heart rhythm alone — combined, they synergize into worse arrhythmia in zebrafish larvae.
  • The radial breathing modes give the diameter; D/G gives the defect load. Illustrative schematic; What exactly were the fish exposed to?

    At 1 ppm, Carbon Nanotubes Weaken a Zebrafish’s Heart and Rewire Its Behavior
    Six characterization techniques confirm exactly what carbon nanotube sample zebrafish were exposed to — before the behavioral and cardiac effects were measured.
  • In GeS the Ag modes at 110, 236 and 269 cm⁻¹ appear along the armchair axis; B3g at 210 cm⁻¹ only across it. Illustrative schematic; Can one rotation identify an unknown layered crystal?

    Four Unknown Semiconductors, One Question a Single Spectrum Can’t Answer
    An ordinary spectrum tells you a material is there. Polarized Raman and µPL on RAMaker tell you what it is — proven across four unrelated layered semiconductors, one independent lab, seven months.
  • One silver-nanowire platform, retargeted three times. Illustrative schematic; How did a pesticide chip become a COVID assay?

    NanoSE: How We Co-Developed a Dual-Readout Biosensor — From Pesticides to a Pandemic
    One silver-nanowire platform, two signals, three years — how Protrustech and Nanovie co-developed NanoSE from pesticide sensing to a COVID-19 assay.
  • Tryptophan bands at 737, 887 and 1579 cm⁻¹ separate the antigen; 1288 and 1646 report the helix. Illustrative schematic; What tells one spike protein from another, without antibodies?

    Label-Free SARS-CoV-2 Detection: Direct SERS Antigen and Antibody Biosensing
    Discover how 3D silver-nanowire chips and dual-Raman systems turn a 10 µL sample into an instant, label-free pathogen diagnostic — no antibodies required.
  • The chip is calibrated on the Rh6G 1510 cm⁻¹ band, then applied to serum unmodified. Illustrative schematic; How little direct bilirubin can one drop of serum show?

    One Drop of Blood, Label-Free Clinical Direct-Bilirubin Diagnostics via SERS
    Discover how 3D nanochips and portable Raman systems are turning a 10 µL drop of blood into an instant, reagent-free clinical diagnostic.
  • It is not the same bands at different heights — different bands dominate each tissue. Illustrative schematic; What separates tumour tissue from healthy tissue?

    One Raman Scan Separates Oral Cancer From Healthy Tissue With 87.5% Accuracy
    A ProTrusTech Raman system helped classify oral cancer from healthy tissue with 87.5% accuracy — no biopsy, no stain, just a laser scan.
  • The silicon line at 520 cm⁻¹ is the internal reference; the dye bands are what grow. Illustrative schematic; What does the pyramid texture actually buy you?

    A SERS Chip You Can Make in 3 Minutes, at Room Temperature, Without a Vacuum Chamber
    Silver-on-silicon SERS substrates made in 3 minutes at room temperature, no vacuum gear — and exactly what a pyramid texture buys you in sensitivity.
  • Crystal violet is read on its 1174 and 1373 cm⁻¹ ring modes. Illustrative schematic; Can a pen-writing machine build a femtomolar substrate?

    A Machine That Writes Like a Pen Builds a Femtomolar SERS Substrate
    An automatic writing machine draws silver nanowire ink onto paper — and reaches a femtomolar detection limit that beats every other AgNW method tested.
  • Gold grown with grape-skin extract alone gives 5.8×10⁴; adding graphene oxide takes it to 1.92×10⁹. Illustrative schematic; What does the graphene oxide add under the gold?

    Gold Grown With Grape Skin, Printed on Paper — a Green SERS Strip That Reaches 10⁻¹¹ M
    Gold nanoparticles grown with grape-skin extract, paired with graphene oxide on paper, give a 1.9×10⁹ SERS enhancement and 10⁻¹¹ M dye detection in food.
  • Thiram is read on its S–S and C–N modes; both return after abuse. Illustrative schematic; Does the signal survive bending, freezing and acid?

    A Flexible SERS Film That Bends, Freezes, and Still Reads Pesticide Vapor
    A grating-patterned, silver-nanowire-decorated PDMS film stays SERS-active through bending, twisting, stretching, acid, cold, and even vapor detection.
  • Illustrative schematic: one nanowire array first destroys the pollutant under light, then reads what is left by SERS.

    One Nanowire Array, Two Jobs: Destroy the Pollutant, Then Detect It
    Two studies, one idea: semiconductor nanowire arrays that photocatalytically destroy a dye and, decorated with silver, detect it by SERS down to 10⁻⁹ M.
  • The platform is quantified on the R6G band at 1361 cm⁻¹, once the drop is pinned in place. Illustrative schematic; Why does a droplet that sits still measure better?

    Printing Tiny Hydrophobic Corrals So Droplets Sit Still for SERS
    An ionic-liquid electropolymerization route patterns hydrophobic wells on ITO and flexible film — droplet arrays for electrochemistry and SERS on the MRI.
  • The reaction starts 300 mV earlier and delivers four times the current density. Illustrative schematic; What does glycerol do to the photoanode?

    A BiVO4 Photoanode Turns a Biodiesel Waste Stream Into Hydrogen Fuel and a $150/kg Chemical
    A biodiesel by-product becomes a photoanode’s favorite fuel — hydrogen at the cathode, valuable dihydroxyacetone and formic acid at the anode.
  • A single narrow V–O stretch at 826 cm⁻¹ is the monoclinic fingerprint. Illustrative schematic; Is the film really pure monoclinic BiVO4?

    A Solvent Swap Lifts a Photoanode’s Output 15-Fold — Raman Shows Why
    Swapping in an ethylene-glycol/water solvent yields pure monoclinic BiVO4 films — 15× the photocurrent for water splitting, with 2D Raman mapping as proof.
  • Intensity says how bright; only the decay says why. Illustrative schematic; Two samples, equal brightness — are they the same?

    TCSPC Explained: What RAMaker’s Photon Counting Reveals
    One measurement, two unrelated problems solved — how time-correlated single-photon counting on RAMaker separates real physics from simple brightness.
  • The indirect edge moves 1.37 → 1.20 eV across the series, and the excitons split by polarization. Illustrative schematic; Where does the band edge go as selenium replaces sulfur?

    One Polarized Scan Maps an Entire 2D Alloy Series — and Its Dual Emission
    An entire alloy series of an anisotropic 2D semiconductor gets mapped by polarized micro-PL, revealing two light-emission pathways in one crystal.
  • Mixed particle sizes open nanogaps; the same band goes from absent to dominant. Illustrative schematic; One dewetting step gave nothing. Why did the second work?

    A Second Silver Layer Turns a Silent Melamine Sensor Into a 190,000× SERS Signal
    A second, 2 nm silver deposition after laser dewetting builds mixed-size nanoparticles that unlock a 190,000× SERS enhancement and a 10⁻⁷ M melamine detection limit — where single-step dewetting shows no signal at all.
  • MAPbI3 has bands across 40–300 cm⁻¹; annealing sharpens 74 and 105 and suppresses 94. Illustrative schematic; How do you know when the anneal is finished?

    Laser Annealing at 405 nm: MRID Watches Perovskite Crystallize Live
    A single annealing pass pushed the crystal-quality ratio from 0.81 to 1.07 — demonstrated on both rigid glass and flexible PET substrates.
  • The characteristic melamine band appears at 676–680 cm⁻¹ in every spectrum; only its height changes. Illustrative schematic; Does a second dewetting step help the signal too?

    Two-Step Dewetting Builds Silver Nanoparticles That Do Double Duty — Stronger SERS, Total Bacterial Kill
    One extra process step turns silver nanoparticles into a dual-purpose surface — stronger melamine SERS signal and complete antibacterial kill.
  • Laser-dewetted AgCuAl gives a strong melamine response at 680 cm⁻¹. Illustrative schematic; Does a three-metal alloy beat pure silver?

    A Three-Metal SERS Alloy: AgCuAl Nanoparticles Detect Melamine
    A three-metal alloy, not pure silver, gets laser-dewetted into SERS-active nanoparticles — with one number predicting the final particle size.
  • Melamine is read on one band — the triazine ring breathing mode. Illustrative schematic; Is the sensor still reading melamine after four weeks?

    One Ceramic Shell Turns a Melamine Sensor 120x More Sensitive
    A 2 nm hafnium dioxide shell over laser-dewetted silver nanoparticles boosts melamine detection sensitivity 120x — and keeps the SERS signal stable for 28 days.
  • Thiram is identified on four assigned vibrations, with fluorescence as the second readout. Illustrative schematic; What can a crossed-nanowire chip actually detect?

    One Nanochip Sees Two Ultra-Sensitive Signals — Where NanoSE Begins
    Four pesticides, one fluorescent dye, and hot spots the researchers could actually photograph — the 2021 paper behind everything that came after.
  • Each 2D layer number emits at its own wavelength — 535, 575, 620, 650 nm — and the treated film keeps only 780 nm. Illustrative schematic; Did the film really sort itself into 2D and 3D?

    One Vapor Reaction Builds a Self-Sorting Perovskite Film — 3D on Top, Protective 2D Below
    A single vapor-reaction step builds a perovskite film that grades itself from protective 2D at the bottom to high-performance 3D on top.
  • XRD, ToF-SIMS and FT-IR show the lattice is unchanged — FoAI only suppresses the delta phase. Illustrative schematic; Can an additive that never joins the crystal still help?

    One New Cation Additive Blocks Perovskite’s Efficiency-Killing Yellow Phase — and Lifts Output to 14.5%
    A new cation additive that never joins the perovskite crystal still blocks its efficiency-killing yellow phase — lifting solar cell output to 14.5%.
  • The scheelite monoclinic BiVO4 set is unchanged; one extra band at 285.9 cm⁻¹ is the CuO. Illustrative schematic; Is the co-catalyst actually on the photoanode?

    One Anion Swap Turns Copper Oxide Into a Better Solar Water-Splitting Co-Catalyst
    Nitrate or sulfate — a choice built into a single plating bath — decides whether copper oxide becomes a porous powerhouse or a dense underperformer.
  • In both oxides the D/G ratio correlates linearly with the magnetic enhancement. Illustrative schematic; Why does a carbon shell make two different oxides more magnetic?

    A Carbon Shell Boosts Two Magnetic Materials, Two Different Ways
    One research team, one carbon-shell trick, two magnetic oxides — and two opposite electronic mechanisms, both confirmed with RAMaker Raman spectroscopy.
  • D, G and 2D are the accepted carbon assignment — which is why they are used as the reference. Illustrative schematic; What do you validate a new carbon method against?

    When Analytical Chemistry Needed a Raman Reference for Carbon Materials, It Chose Our MRI
    An independent Analytical Chemistry study validated a new IR photoacoustic method for carbon materials against Raman fingerprints taken on ProTrusTech’s MRI.
  • D at 1350 cm⁻¹ is the defect band; G at 1580 cm⁻¹ is the intact lattice. Illustrative schematic; Did the microwave treatment really heal the defects?

    Microwaves Can Heal a Carbon Nanotube’s Defects — and Raman Is How You Know
    Raman D/G analysis showed microwave treatment in CO reduces defect density in Co/SiO2-loaded carbon nanotubes — a ProTrusTech co-authored fuel-cell study.
  • One ortho substituent moves the coppers from 2.75 to 3.59 Å. Illustrative schematic; What decides whether the coppers bond at all?

    9 Ligands Reveal How Tricopper(I) Clusters Bond
    Swapping one ortho-substituent shifted Cu···Cu distances from 2.75 Å (bonded) to 3.59 Å (no interaction) across a nine-ligand tricopper(I) series — proof that sterics, not electronics, control these cuprophilic interactions.
  • Unit-cell and WO6 volumes fall linearly with cation radius; the octahedron gets more regular as the radius grows. Illustrative schematic; What decides how badly the WO6 framework warps?

    Swap One Cation, Warp the Whole Framework — and Two Techniques Watch It Happen
    Swapping Cs for Rb for K systematically distorts the WO6 framework of a NIR-shielding tungsten bronze — mapped by single-crystal X-ray and RAMaker Raman.
  • The deep eutectic solvent controls the alloy ratio, and the alloy sets the overpotential. Illustrative schematic; How much less push does the bimetallic film need?

    One Solvent Swap Builds a More Durable Water-Splitting Catalyst
    Swapping water for a deep eutectic solvent fixes a longstanding alloy-plating problem — and builds a catalyst that runs 10+ hours without fading.
  • The Ag modes peak along the b axis; the Bg4 mode peaks exactly across it. Illustrative schematic; Which direction in the ZrS3 ribbon carries the current?

    Polarized Raman and PL Reveal the Hidden Axis Powering a New 2D Solar Material
    Polarized micro-Raman mapped a quasi-1D crystal’s hidden axis — then a solar cell built on that axis hit 5.4x higher efficiency. See the data.
  • The 1445 cm⁻¹ C=C mode sharpens and shifts down as the chains order. Illustrative schematic; Did the nanoparticle just trap light, or change the polymer?

    A Plasmonic Nanoparticle Lifts a P3HT Solar Cell’s Current 30% — Without Trapping Any Extra Light
    Gold@silica nanoparticles create a Fano resonance that boosts a P3HT solar cell’s photocurrent 30% — and Raman shows the plasmon also orders the polymer.
  • The oxide is nearly Raman-silent, so any D and G must come from the buried layer. Illustrative schematic; Is the graphene still there under the oxide?

    Raman Confirms the Buried Graphene Layer That Makes IGZO Electronics Work
    Two studies used MRI Raman to verify the buried graphene interlayer that lowers resistivity and toughens IGZO thin films for flexible electronics.
  • The thiophene band centre indexes conjugation length, so each excitation maps a different domain population. Illustrative schematic; Does the excitation you choose change what you map?

    The Blend That Makes a Polymer Transistor Behave — Mapped Domain by Domain With AFM-Raman
    Co-localized AFM-Raman on a RAMaker resolved the phase-separated domains that give polymer thin-film transistors decay-free, fast switching — a ProTrusTech co-authored study.
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