Synergetic SERS Enhancement in a Metal-Like/Metal Double-Shell Structure for Sensitive and Stable Application

作者：Rongcheng Ban, Yingjian Yu, Meng Zhang, Jun Yin, Binbin Xu, De‐Yin Wu, Min Wu, Zhigang Zhang, Huiling Tai, Jing Li, Junyong Kang · 发表于：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces · 年份：2017 · DOI：10.1021/acsami.6b15396 · 被引用次数：34 · 研究领域：Gold and Silver Nanoparticles Synthesis and Applications、Nonlinear Optical Materials Studies、Spectroscopy Techniques in Biomedical and Chemical Research

Because of either thermal/chemical instability or high optical loss in noble metal nanostructures, searching for alternative plasmonic materials is becoming more and more urgent, considering the practical biosensing applications under various extreme conditions. In this work, titanium nitride (TiN), a low-loss metal-like material with both excellent thermal and excellent chemical stabilities, was proposed to composite with Ag hollow nanosphere (HNS) nanostructures as an effective surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate to realize both highly sensitive and highly stable molecular detection. Because of the multiple-mode local surface plasmon resonance around the spherical composite nanospheres and the "gap effect" derived from the ultrasmall nanogaps within the precisely controlled plasmonic arrays, an intensively enhanced local field was successfully induced on this SERS substrate. Combined with the unique charge transferring process between Ag and TiN, a synergistically enhanced SERS sensitivity involving both physical and chemical mechanisms was achieved. Especially, with the isolation of TiN, a time-durable Raman detection on these TiN-Ag HNS arrays was accomplished, showing great potential for practical applications.