Peixi Chen

Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Based on Controllable-Layer Graphene Shells Directly Synthesized on Cu Nanoparticles for Molecular Detection

Graphene shells with a controllable number of layers were directly synthesized on Cu nanoparticles (CuNPs) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to fabricate a graphene-encapsulated CuNPs (G/CuNPs) hybrid system for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The enhanced Raman spectra of adenosine and rhodamine 6G (R6G) showed that the G/CuNPs hybrid system can strongly suppress background fluorescence and increase signal-to-noise ratio. In four different types of SERS systems, the G/CuNPs hybrid system exhibits more efficient SERS than a transferred graphene/CuNPs hybrid system and pure CuNPs and graphene substrates. The minimum detectable concentrations of adenosine and R6G by the G/CuNPs hybrid system can be as low as 10(-8) and 10(-10)  M, respectively. The excellent linear relationship between Raman intensity and analyte concentration can be used for molecular detection. The graphene shell can also effectively prevent surface oxidation of Cu nanoparticles after exposure to ambient air and thus endow the hybrid system with a long lifetime. This work provides a basis for the fabrication of novel SERS substrates.

Large-area MoS2 thin layers directly synthesized on Pyramid-Si substrate for surface-enhanced Raman scattering

In our work, we directly synthesized few layer MoS2 on a pyramid-Si substrate to fabricate a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate via thermally decomposing the precursor of ammonium thiomolybdate ((NH4)2MoS4). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectra are employed to characterize the as-grown MoS2 layers. Adenosine and cytidine were selected as the probe molecules to investigate the SERS ability of the MoS2-pyramid-Si substrate, and have shown that the MoS2-pyramid-Si substrate can prominently suppress photobleaching and fluorescence of the probe molecule. Compared with the MoS2-flat-Si substrate (MoS2 layers synthesized on flat-Si substrate), the MoS2-pyramid-Si substrate has more significant SERS ability. The minimum detected concentration of both adenosine and cytidine on the MoS2-pyramid-Si substrate can reach 10−6 M. Importantly, the linear relationship between the Raman intensity and the concentration of adenosine or cytidine can apply to the bimolecular detection. This work may provide a new opportunity for the study of the chemistry mechanism (CM) and novel SERS substrate fabrication.

A sensitive, uniform, reproducible and stable SERS substrate has been presented based on MoS2@Ag nanoparticles@pyramidal silicon

By combining the excellent surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity of Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs), the well-separated pyramid arrays of the pyramidal silicon (PSi) and unique physical/chemical properties of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), the MoS2@AgNPs@PSi substrate shows high performance in terms of sensitivity, uniformity, reproducibility and stability. By using rhodamine 6G (R6G) as probe molecule, the SERS results indicate that the MoS2@AgNPs@PSi substrate is superior to the AgNPs@PSi, AgA@PSi (the second annealing of the AgNPs@PSi) and the MoS2@AgNPs@flat-Si substrate. The MoS2@AgNPs@PSi substrate also shows the reasonable linear response between the Raman intensity and R6G concentration. The maximum deviations of SERS intensities from 20 positions on a same MoS2@AgNPs@PSi substrate and 10 MoS2@AgNPs@PSi substrates in different batches are less than 7.6% and 9%, respectively, revealing the excellent uniformity and reproducibility of the substrate. Besides, the SERS substrate has a good stability, the Raman intensity of the MoS2@AgNPs@PSi substrate only drop by 15% in a month. The corresponding experimental and theoretical results suggest that our proposed MoS2@AgNPs@PSi substrate is expected to offer a new and practical way to accelerate the development of label-free SERS detection.

Graphene oxide-decorated silver dendrites for high-performance surface-enhanced Raman scattering applications

We demonstrate graphene oxide (GO)-decorated Ag dendritic nanostructures on a copper substrate for surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) applications. The Ag dendrites (AgD) were synthesized through a facile and low-cost galvanic replacement reaction of Ag nitrate solution and copper foils. The AgD/Cu was further decorated with GO by a dip-coating method. The GO-decorated AgD exhibited a much higher SERS activity in terms of sensitivity, signal-to-noise ratio and stability compared with non-decorated AgD, indicating that the GO/AgD/Cu substrates could be potentially useful for highly sensitive molecule detecting applications.