Ag Nanorods Coated with Ultrathin TiO2 Shells as Stable and Recyclable SERS Substrates.
TiO2-coated Ag nanorods (Ag@TiO2 NRs) have been fabricated as multifunctional surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates. Uniform TiO2 shells could sufficiently protect the internal Ag NRs against oxidation and sulfuration, thus the temporal stability of SERS substrates was markedly improved. Meanwhile, due to the synergetic effect between crystalline TiO2 and Ag, the nanocomposites could clean themselves via photocatalytic degradation of the adsorbed molecules under ultraviolet irradiation and water dilution, making the SERS substrates renewable. Such Ag@TiO2 NRs were shown to serve as outstanding SERS sensors featuring high sensitivity, superior stability and recyclability.
State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P.R. China.
Lingwei
L
Ma
State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P.R. China.
Yu
Y
Huang
State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P.R. China.
Mengjing
M
Hou
High-Tech Institute of Xi'an, Shannxi 710025, P.R. China.
Zheng
Z
Xie
Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials (MOE), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P.R. China.
Zhengjun
Z
Zhang