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This review shows updated experimental cases of tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) operated in
solution/liquid systems. TERS in solution/liquid is still infancy, but very essential and challenging
because crucial and complicated biological processes such as photosynthesis, biological electron
transfer, and cellular respiration take place and undergo in water, electrolytes, or buffers. The
measurements of dry samples do not reflect real activities in those kinds of systems. To deeply
understand them, TERS in solution/liquid is needed to be developed. The first TERS experiment in
solution/liquid is successfully performed in 2009. After that time, TERS in solution/liquid has gradually
been developed. It shows a potential to study structural changes of biomembranes, opening the world of
dynamic living cells. TERS is combined with electrochemical techniques, establishing electrochemical
TERS (EC-TERS) in 2015. EC-TERS creates an interesting path to fulfil the knowledge about
electrochemical-related reactions or processes. TERS tip can be functionalized with sensitive molecules
to act as a “surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) at tip” for investigating distinct properties of
systems in solution/liquid e.g., pH and electron transfer mechanism. TERS setup is continuously under
developing. Versatile geometry of the setup and a guideline of a systematic implementation for a setup
of TERS in solution/liquid are proposed. New style of setup is also reported for TERS imaging in
solution/liquid. From all of these, TERS in solution/liquid will expand a nano-scaled exploration into
solution/liquid systems of various fields e.g., energy storages, catalysts, electronic devices, medicines,
alternative energy sources, and build a next step of nanoscience and nanotechnology.
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