low-cost plasmonic carbon spacer for surface plasmon-coupled emission enhancements and ethanol detection: a smartphone approach

Surface plasmon-coupled emission (spce) has led to significant advancements in analytical techniques on account of its unique characteristics that include highly polarized photon-sorting ability. in this study, we report the use of a low-cost activated carbon as a plasmonic spacer in the spce substrate for achieving 30-fold enhancement in fluorescence emission. we extend the use of this spacer in the presence of rhodamine b base, a lactone dye as the sensing material for smartphone-based ethanol detection on the spce platform. ethanol detection from 1 to 6% concentration highlights the potential use of this technique in monitoring fermentation processes.