Enhancement of the semiconductor-molecule interaction, in particular, promoting the interfacial charge transfer process (ICTP), is key to improving the sensitivity of semiconductor-based surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Herein, by developing amorphous ZnO nanocages (a-ZnO NCs), we successfully obtained an ultrahigh enhancement factor of up to 6.62×10 . This remarkable SERS sensitivity can be attributed to high-efficiency ICTP within a-ZnO NC molecule system, which is caused by metastable electronic states of a-ZnO NCs. First-principles density functional theory (DFT) simulations further confirmed a stronger ICTP in a-ZnO NCs than in their crystalline counterparts. The efficient ICTP can even generate π bonding in Zn-S bonds peculiar to the mercapto molecule adsorbed a-ZnO NCs, which has been verified through the X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) characterization. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time such remarkable SERS activity has been observed within amorphous semiconductor nanomaterials, which could open a new frontier for developing highly sensitive and stable SERS technology.
High-adhesion stretchable electrodes are fabricated by utilizing a novel nanopile interlocking strategy. Nanopiles significantly enhance adhesion and redistribute the strain in the film, achieving high stretchability. The nanopile electrodes enable simultaneous monitoring of electromyography signals and mechanical deformations. This study opens up a new perspective of achieving stretchability and high adhesion for stretchable electronics.
A Cu O superstructure is constructed through a recrystallization-induced self-assembly strategy. Single Cu O superstructure particle exhibits an outstanding surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy performance with the limit of detection as low as 10 mol L and metal comparable enhancement factor (8 × 10 ) due to the synergetic effect of vacancies defect-facilitated charge-transfer process and copper vacancies defect-induced electrostatic adsorption.
The possibility of utilizing the Si and Ge nanostructures to promote surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is discussed. The vibronic coupling of the conduction band and valence band states of Si or Ge with the excited and ground states of the target molecule during the charge transfer (CT) process could enhance the molecular polarizability tensor. Using H-terminated silicon nanowire (H-SiNW) and germanium nanotube (H-GeNT) arrays as substrates, significant Raman enhancement of the standard probes, Rodamine 6G (R6G), dye (Bu(4)N)(2)[Ru(dcbpyH)(2)-(NCS)(2)] (N719), and 4-aminothiophenol (PATP), are demonstrated. The abundant hydrogen atoms terminated on the surface of SiNW and GeNT arrays play a critical role in promoting efficient CT and enable the SERS effect.
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