Metal nanoparticles/carbon dots nanocomposites for SERS devices: trends and perspectives

Abstract

Carbon dots and carbon dots-based nanocomposites have found a myriad of technological applications. Despite the primary use of carbon dots as catalysts in the reduction process to form metal nanoparticles, their strong interaction with metal nanostructures in nanocomposites can be further exploited. By tuning the emission of carbon dots and the absorption band of metal nanoparticles, it is possible to reach adequate surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) from the resulting nanocomposites. Herein, it is reported the state-of-art in metal/carbon dots nanocomposites applied as active elements for SERS devices in the detection of traces of analytes. Strategies of synthesis, morphology (aggregation and anti-aggregation methods) and the improvement in the homogeneous distribution of noble metal nanoparticles on substrates have been discussed to reach the best performance for highly efficient SERS devices.