Plasmonic Spherical Nanoparticles Coupled with Titania Nanotube Arrays Prepared by Anodization as Substrates for Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Applications: A Review.

Jorge Jimenez-Cisneros,Monica Cerro-Lopez,Juan Pablo Galindo-Lazo,Jessica Rosaura Campos-Delgado,Miguel Angel Mendez-Rojas

doi:10.3390/molecules26247443

Jorge Jimenez-Cisneros, Monica Cerro-Lopez + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26247443

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Abstract

As surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) continues developing to be a powerful analytical tool for several probes, four important aspects to make it more accessible have to be addressed: low-cost, reproducibility, high sensibility, and recyclability. Titanium dioxide nanotubes (TiO2 NTs) prepared by anodization have attracted interest in this field because they can be used as safe solid supports to deposit metal nanoparticles to build SERS substrate nanoplatforms that meet these four desired aspects. TiO2 NTs can be easily prepared and, by varying different synthesis parameters, their dimensions and specific features of their morphology can be tuned allowing them to support metal nanoparticles of different sizes that can achieve a regular dispersion on their surface promoting high enhancement factors (EF) and reproducibility. Besides, the TiO2 photocatalytic properties enable the substrate’s self-cleaning property for recyclability. In this review, we discuss the different methodological strategies that have been tested to achieve a high performance of the SERS substrates based on TiO2 NTs as solid support for the three main noble metal nanoparticles mainly studied for this purpose: Ag, Au, and Pt.

Highlights

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has become one of the most attractive analytical techniques due to its versatility and high sensitivity for a variety of analytes like dyes, food additives, pesticides, explosives, DNA, and other biomolecules at very low concentrations [1]
SERS substrates may consist of metal nanoparticles, roughened metallic surfaces, and more recently due to the advances of nanofabrication techniques, of nanoengineered surfaces with metallic nanoparticles deposited on solid support [4,5]
This review aims to be a comprehensive, critical, and accessible review of general interest to the chemistry community because it discusses the state of the art of the use of titania nanotubes prepared by anodization as substrates for the main metal plasmonic nanoparticles (Ag, Pt, Au) currently utilized in SERS

Summary

Introduction

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has become one of the most attractive analytical techniques due to its versatility and high sensitivity for a variety of analytes like dyes, food additives, pesticides, explosives, DNA, and other biomolecules at very low concentrations [1]. SERS is a technique that couples Raman scattering from an organic molecule with surface plasmon resonance of a metal nanoparticle (MNP) in order to enhance the Ramanactive vibrational modes of that molecule. This coupling allows amplifying the Raman signals with enhancement factors (EF) up to 1010 to 1011 [4,6,7,8]. Reproducibility is a major issue in SERS performance and it mainly relies on the availability of hot spots evenly distributed and is highly stable This technological development is aiming at the immobilization of MNPs in order to achieve this goal [3,4,9,10]

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