How Amorphous Nanomaterials Enhanced Electrocatalytic, SERS, and Mechanical Properties

Abstract

There is ever-growing research interest in nanomaterials because of the unique properties that emerge on the nanometer scale. While crystalline nanomaterials have received a surge of attention for exhibiting state-of-the-art properties in various fields, their amorphous counterparts have also attracted attention in recent years owing to their unique structural features that crystalline materials lack. In short, amorphous nanomaterials only have short-range order at the atomic scale, and their atomic packing lacks long-range periodic arrangement, in which the coordinatively unsaturated environment, isotropic atomic structure, and modulated electron state all contribute to their outstanding performance in various applications. Given their intriguing characteristics, we herein present a series of representative works to elaborate on the structural advantages of amorphous nanomaterials as well as their enhanced electrocatalytic, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), and mechanical properties, thereby elucidating the underlying structure–function relationship. We hope that this proposed relationship will be universally applicable, thus encouraging future work in the design of amorphous materials that show promising performance in a wide range of fields.

Smart sensors/actuators based in amorphous nanostructures, according to enhance robotic arms energy transmission

“…Nevertheless, the samples obtained were amorphous, in this context there were designed transducers (such as nano wires) based on titanium dioxide, silicon, ferric, cooper, gold and silver. Even though, the samples are amorphous, it does not mean that cannot be useful [15,16], these samples are useful as clusters with good performance in the electromagnetic absorbance (for the wireless sensors designed in this task).…”

Design of MXene-Based Multiporous Nanosheet Stacking Structures Integrating Multiple Synergistic SERS Enhancements for Ultrasensitive Detection of Chloramphenicol

“…With regard to semiconductor substrates, the SERS enhancement mainly arises from the enhanced chemical bond vibration of molecules caused by the charge transfer between substrates and molecules. Currently, a large number of literature studies have confirmed that the amorphization of SERS substrates is able to conspicuously increase the excited electrons near the Fermi level, thereby developing the chemical enhancement effect of semiconductor materials on probe molecules. − Hence, forming a uniform amorphous layer on the surface of crystalline MXene nanosheets may be an efficient method to further improve the SERS detection sensitivity. In conclusion, the combination of 3D assembling and amorphizing MXene nanosheets is expected to synergistically improve the SERS performance of MXenes from three aspects of physical enrichment, CM, and EM and thus propose a universal experimental strategy that can conspicuously optimize the SERS sensitivity of MXenes.…”

In-situ microscopy-assisted meniscus-guided coating for highly sensitive reduced graphene oxide-based nanocomposite biosensor

“…Due to its amorphous carbon structure, reduced graphene oxide (rGO) can form an even broader variety of structures (e.g., wrinkles, interlayer distance, thickness, and porosity) compared to other nanomaterials. [7] For example, wrinkles in rGO-based structures create digitated tunnels that act as individual nanoelectrodes [6a] . This not only increases the total geometric surface area, but also improves electroconductivity by electron and mass transfer kinetics [8] , and sensitivity by increasing the loading capacity of receptors.…”