title: Noble-Metal-Free Materials for Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Detection.
abstract: Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is an attractive tool for the sensing of molecules in the fields of chemical and biochemical analysis as it enables the sensitive detection of molecular fingerprint information even at the single-molecule level. In addition to traditional coinage metals in SERS analysis, recent research on noble-metal-free materials has also yielded highly sensitive SERS activity. This Minireview presents the recent development of noble-metal-free materials as SERS substrates and their potential applications, especially semiconductors and emerging graphene-based nanostructures. Rather than providing an exhaustive review of this field, possible contributions from semiconductor substrates, characteristics of graphene enhanced Raman scattering, as well as effect factors such as surface plasmon resonance, structure and defects of the nanostructures that are considered essential for SERS activity are emphasized. The intention is to illustrate, through these examples, that the promise of noble-metal-free materials for enhancing detection sensitivity can further fuel the development of SERS-related applications.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Institute of Fine Chemicals, East China University of Science and Technology, Meilong Road 130, 200237, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Xianjun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Institute of Fine Chemicals, East China University of Science and Technology, Meilong Road 130, 200237, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Melkersson
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Institute of Fine Chemicals, East China University of Science and Technology, Meilong Road 130, 200237, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Shiqun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Institute of Fine Chemicals, East China University of Science and Technology, Meilong Road 130, 200237, Shanghai, China. wlz@ecust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Lingzhi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Institute of Fine Chemicals, East China University of Science and Technology, Meilong Road 130, 200237, Shanghai, China. jlzhang@ecust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jinlong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: graphene; graphene-enhanced Raman spectroscopy; noble-metal-free materials; plasmonic semiconductors; surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy