Role of Graphene in Constructing Multilayer Plasmonic SERS Substrate with Graphene/AgNPs as Chemical Mechanism—Electromagnetic Mechanism Unit
Lu Liu,
Shuting Hou,
Xiaofei Zhao,
Chundong Liu,
Zhen Li,
Chonghui Li,
Shicai Xu,
Guilin Wang,
Jing Yu,
Chao Zhang,
Baoyuan Man
Affiliations
Lu Liu
Collaborative Innovation Center of Light Manipulations and Applications, School of Physics and Electronics, Institute of Materials and Clean Energy, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250358, China
Shuting Hou
Collaborative Innovation Center of Light Manipulations and Applications, School of Physics and Electronics, Institute of Materials and Clean Energy, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250358, China
Xiaofei Zhao
Collaborative Innovation Center of Light Manipulations and Applications, School of Physics and Electronics, Institute of Materials and Clean Energy, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250358, China
Chundong Liu
Collaborative Innovation Center of Light Manipulations and Applications, School of Physics and Electronics, Institute of Materials and Clean Energy, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250358, China
Zhen Li
Collaborative Innovation Center of Light Manipulations and Applications, School of Physics and Electronics, Institute of Materials and Clean Energy, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250358, China
Chonghui Li
Collaborative Innovation Center of Light Manipulations and Applications, School of Physics and Electronics, Institute of Materials and Clean Energy, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250358, China
Shicai Xu
Shandong Key Laboratory of Biophysics, Institute of Biophysics, Dezhou University, Dezhou 253023, China
Guilin Wang
Collaborative Innovation Center of Light Manipulations and Applications, School of Physics and Electronics, Institute of Materials and Clean Energy, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250358, China
Jing Yu
Collaborative Innovation Center of Light Manipulations and Applications, School of Physics and Electronics, Institute of Materials and Clean Energy, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250358, China
Chao Zhang
Collaborative Innovation Center of Light Manipulations and Applications, School of Physics and Electronics, Institute of Materials and Clean Energy, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250358, China
Baoyuan Man
Collaborative Innovation Center of Light Manipulations and Applications, School of Physics and Electronics, Institute of Materials and Clean Energy, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250358, China
Graphene–metal substrates have received widespread attention due to their superior surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) performance. The strong coupling between graphene and metal particles can greatly improve the SERS performance and thus broaden the application fields. The way in which to make full use of the synergistic effect of the hybrid is still a key issue to improve SERS activity and stability. Here, we used graphene as a chemical mechanism (CM) layer and Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) as an electromagnetic mechanism (EM) layer, forming a CM–EM unit and constructing a multi-layer hybrid structure as a SERS substrate. The improved SERS performance of the multilayer nanostructure was investigated experimentally and in theory. We demonstrated that the Raman enhancement effect increased as the number of CM–EM units increased, remaining nearly unchanged when the CM–EM unit was more than four. The limit of detection was down to 10−14 M for rhodamine 6G (R6G) and 10−12 M for crystal violet (CV), which confirmed the ultrahigh sensitivity of the multilayer SERS substrate. Furthermore, we investigated the reproducibility and thermal stability of the proposed multilayer SERS substrate. On the basis of these promising results, the development of new materials and novel methods for high performance sensing and biosensing applications will be promoted.
