1 research outputs found
Semiconductor SERS enhancement enabled by oxygen incorporation
<p>Semiconductor-based
surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates represent a new frontier
in the field of SERS. However, the application of
semiconductor materials as SERS substrates is still seriously impeded by their
low SERS enhancement and inferior detection sensitivity, especially for
non-metal-oxide semiconductor materials. Herein, we demonstrate a general oxygen-incorporation-assisted
strategy to magnify the semiconductor substrate–analyte molecule interaction,
leading to significant increase in SERS enhancement for non-metal-oxide
semiconductor materials. Oxygen incorporation in MoS<sub>2</sub> even with
trace concentrations can not only increase enhancement factors by up to 100,000
folds compared with oxygen-unincorporated samples, but also endow MoS<sub>2</sub>
with low limit of detection below 10<sup>-7</sup> M. Intriguingly,
combined with the findings in previous studies, our present results indicate
that both oxygen incorporation and extraction processes can result in SERS
enhancement, probably due to the enhanced charge-transfer resonance as
well as exciton resonance arising from
the judicious control of oxygen admission in semiconductor
substrate.</p