title: Noble metal-comparable SERS enhancement from semiconducting metal oxides by making oxygen vacancies.
abstract: Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) represents a very powerful tool for the identification of molecular species, but unfortunately it has been essentially restricted to noble metal supports (Au, Ag and Cu). While the application of semiconductor materials as SERS substrate would enormously widen the range of uses for this technique, the detection sensitivity has been much inferior and the achievable SERS enhancement was rather limited, thereby greatly limiting the practical applications. Here we report the employment of non-stoichiometric tungsten oxide nanostructure, sea urchin-like W18O49 nanowire, as the substrate material, to magnify the substrate-analyte molecule interaction, leading to significant magnifications in Raman spectroscopic signature. The enrichment of surface oxygen vacancy could bring additional enhancements. The detection limit concentration was as low as 10(-7) M and the maximum enhancement factor was 3.4 × 10(5), in the rank of the highest sensitivity, to our best knowledge, among semiconducting materials, even comparable to noble metals without 'hot spots'.
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Nanodevices and Applications, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cong
authors.affiliation: 1] Key Lab of Nanodevices and Applications, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Suzhou 215123, China [2] Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
authors.forename: Yinyin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Nanodevices and Applications, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Junyu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Nanodevices and Applications, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Yanli
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Nanodevices and Applications, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Yongyi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Nanodevices and Applications, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Qingwen
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Fengxia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Geng
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Nanodevices and Applications, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao