Improved and renewable SERS substrates for fluorescent dye detection
C Kavitha, K Bramhaiah, Neena S John, et al., Chem. Phys. Lett. 2015, 629, 81; K Bramhaiah, Vidya N Singh, C Kavitha, and Neena S John,
J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol. 2017, 17, 2711
Hybrid films of rGO-Ag NPs obtained at a liquid/liquid interface are investigated as surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates. These hybrid films suppress fluorescence background to sense Rhodamine 6G (R6G) molecules till 10 nM concentration for 1 second accumulation time with an enhancement factor of 108. The SERS enhancement is due to coupled mechanism of surface plasmons, charge transfer and molecular resonances of Ag and R6G along with the synergic effect contributed by the rGO layers and Ag NPs in the hybrid films. rGO-Ag hybrid can be combined with metal oxides such as ZnO to exploit the enhanced photodegradation property of rGO-Ag-ZnO. The dyes adsorbed on these substrates can be degraded by exposure to UV light thus regenerating fresh substrates for further SERS applications.