Temperature‐Induced Stacking to Create Cu2O Concave Sphere for Light Trapping Capable of Ultrasensitive Single‐Particle Surface‐Enhanced Raman Scattering

Abstract

AbstractThe fabrication of bowl or concave particles with “asymmetric centers” has drawn considerable attentions, in which multiple scattering occurs inside the particles and the ability of light scattering is distinctly enhanced. However, the limited variety of templates, the uncontrollable dimensions such as the size of concavity and the complex growth process have posed serious limitations to the reproducible construction of concave particles with desired geometries and their light‐trapping properties. Herein, a “temperature‐induced stacking” strategy is proposed to create controllable concavity Cu2O spheres for the first time. Different sizes of F68 micelles can be formed through aggregation under different reaction temperatures, which can serve as soft template to tailor concave geometries of Cu2O spheres. The as‐prepared Cu2O concave sphere (CS) can serve as single‐particle (SP) surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate for highly repeatable and consistent Raman spectra. The unique cavity of Cu2O CS entraps light effectively, which also enhances the scattering length owing to multiple light scattering. Combined with slightly increased surface area and charge‐transfer process, Cu2O CS exhibits remarkable single‐particle SERS performance, with an ultralow low detection limit (2 × 10−8 mol L−1) and metal comparable enhancement factor (2.8 × 105).