Abstract
We report on one-step hybridization of silver, gold and palladium nanoparticles from solution onto exfoliated two-dimensional (2D) Ti3C2 titanium carbide (MXene) nanosheets. The produced hybrid materials can be used as substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). An approximate analytical approach is also developed for the calculation of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) frequency of nanoparticles immersed in a medium, near the interface of two dielectric media with different dielectric constants. We obtained a good match with the experimental data for SPR wavelengths, 440 nm and 558 nm, respectively for silver and gold nanoparticles. In the case of palladium, our calculated SPR wavelength for the planar geometry was 160 nm, demonstrating that non-spherical palladium nanoparticles coupled with 2D MXene yield a broad, significanlty red-shifted SPR band with a peak at 230 nm. We propose a possible mechanism of the plasmonic hybridization of nanoparticles with MXene. The as-prepared noble metal nanoparticles on MXene show a highly sensitive SERS detection of methylene blue (MB) with calculated enhancement factors on the order of 105. These findings open a pathway for extending visible-range SERS applications of novel 2D hybrid materials in sensors, catalysis, and biomedical applications.
Highlights
In order to benefit from both EM and CM enhancements in the visible SERS applications, new 2D material hybrids are necessary
This is expected because the surface of MXene was functionalized with different groups after etching out the A-element from its precursor ternary transition metal carbide during synthesis, and the flakes were delaminated by dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)
The MXene colloid exhibits high absorption in the UV region within the range from 225 to 325 nm. This absorption may correspond to the band-gap energy of the oxidized MXene, which was predicted by theoretical calculations[16,17]
Summary
In order to benefit from both EM and CM enhancements in the visible SERS applications, new 2D material hybrids are necessary. The plasmonic properties of MXenes are dependent on the layers’ size, number and stacking order, as well as functional terminations[13,14,15]. Nanotube (CNT) paper for application as highly-capacitive battery anodes for energy storage[20,21,22]. The tunability of their chemical and physical properties renders MXenes very promising for hybridization with nanomaterials. The method has already succeeded in producing large-scale functionalized 2D carbon-based materials for electrochemical and catalytic applications[5,32]. We demonstrate the SERS applicability of the as-synthesized materials on methylene-blue (MB), a well-known dye used as a probe molecule
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