Xingang Zhang

Ultrasensitive SERS Substrate Integrated with Uniform Subnanometer Scale “Hot Spots” Created by a Graphene Spacer for the Detection of Mercury Ions

Mercuric ion (Hg2+ ) is one of the most toxic and serious environment polluting heavy metal ions, which can be accumulated in human body through food chains and drinking water, and causes serious damage to human organs. Therefore, development of the efficient and sensitive method for detection of Hg2+ is very necessary. In this study, the high surface sensitivity and fingerprint information about the chemical structures based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for sensing applications are taken advantage of. Au triangular nanoarrays/n-layer graphene/Au nanoparticles sandwich structure with large-area uniform subnanometer gaps are fabricated and used to detect Hg2+ in water via thymine-Hg2+ -thymine coordination; the detection limit of Hg2+ is as low as 8.3 × 10-9 m. Moreover, this SERS substrate is used to detect the Hg2+ -contaminated sandy soil and shows excellent performance. This study indicates the sandwich structure has a great potential in detection of toxic metal ions and environmental pollutants.

Significant Radiation Tolerance and Moderate Reduction in Thermal Transport of a Tungsten Nanofilm by Inserting Monolayer Graphene

Tungsten-graphene multilayer composites are fabricated using a stacking method. The thermal resistance induced by the graphene interlayer is moderate. An ion-implantation method is used to verify the radiation tolerance. The results show that graphene inserted among tungsten films plays a dominant role in reducing radiation damage. Furthermore, the performance of different tungsten period-thicknesses in radiation tolerance is systematically analyzed.

Synthesis and optical properties of gold nanorods with controllable morphology.

Searching for architectural building blocks with tunable morphology and peculiarity is a prominent challenge for novel diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Here, the aqueous-based seed-mediated methods for preparing highly mono-dispersed Au nanorods with a different aspect ratio are systematically studied by controlling the amounts of Ag ions and seeds. We also explore the effect of pH on the synthesis of gold nanorods. The realization of the overlap of longitudinal plasmon band and excitation source with different degrees is made by changing the aspect ratio of nanorod in order to determine its effect on the overall surface enhancement. In addition, the gold octahedra are prepared by overgrowth on Au nanorods. The SERS effects of Au nanorods are researched and the FDTD simulations are performed to reveal the morphology induced plasmon modes.

Ag Nanoparticles Located on Three-Dimensional Pine Tree-Like Hierarchical TiO2 Nanotube Array Films as High-Efficiency Plasmonic Photocatalysts

High specific surface area three-dimensional pine tree-like hierarchical TiO2 nanotube array films loaded with Ag nanoparticles were successfully prepared by one-step hydrothermal reaction combining with simple and feasible magnetron sputtering. The composite Ag/TiO2-branched nanotube arrays show outstanding photocatalytic property, which is attributed to the boost of plasmonic enhancement carrier generation and separation, higher specific surface area, higher organic pollutant absorption, faster charge transport, and superior light-harvesting efficiency for efficient charge collection. The work provides a cost-effective and flexible pathway to develop high-performance photocatalyst or optoelectronic devices.

Improved Thermal Stability of Graphene-Veiled Noble Metal Nanoarrays as Recyclable SERS Substrates

The ability to enhance the heat resistance of noble metals is vital to many industrial and academic applications. Because of its exceptional thermal properties, graphene was used to enhance the thermal stability of noble metals. Monolayer graphene-covered noble metal triangular nanoarrays (TNAs) showed excellent heat resistance, which could maintain their original triangular nanoarrays at high temperatures, whereas bare noble metal TNAs all agglomerate into spherical nanoparticles. On the basis of this mechanism, we obtained a universal recyclable surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate; after 16 cycles, the SERS substrate still worked well. The improvement of the heat resistance of noble metals by graphene has a great significance to the working reliability and service life of electronic devices and the single-use problem of traditional SERS substrates.

Fabrication of highly homogeneous surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates using Ag ion implantation

In recent times, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has attracted attention for its excellent potential application in chemical and biological detection. In this work, we demonstrate that a highly homogeneous SERS substrate can be realized by Ag ion implantation and the subsequent annealing process. Both the implantation and annealing parameters have been optimized for a high sensitivity SERS substrate. The SERS measurement indicates that a sample implanted by 20 kV Ag ions with a dosage of 3  ×  10(16) ions cm(-2) exhibits the highest SERS activity. In addition, the SERS activity of the Ag-implanted substrates depends highly on the annealing temperature and time. Since none of the fabrication processes contain chemical reactions, our substrate is a clean system without any chemical residues.

Ultrasensitive Au Nanooctahedron Micropinball Sensor for Mercury Ions

Mercury ion (Hg2+) is one of the most toxic heavy metals that has severe adverse effects on the environment and human organs even at very low concentrations. Therefore, highly sensitive and selective detection of Hg2+ is desirable. Here, we introduce plasmonic micropinball constructed from Au nanooctahedron as a three-dimensional surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) platform, enabling ultrasensitive detection of trace Hg2+ ions. Typically, strong SERS signals could be obtained when the single-stranded DNA structure converts to the hairpin structure in the presence of Hg2+ ions, due to the formation of thymine (T)-Hg2+-T. As a result, the detection limit of Hg2+ ions is as low as 1 × 10-16 M, which is far below compared to that reported for conventional analytical strategies. Moreover, to achieve rapid multiple detection, we combine the micropinball sensors with microflow tube online detection. Our platform prevents cross-talk and tube contamination, allowing multiassay analysis, rapid identification, and quantification of different analytes and concentrations across separate phases.