Interfacial Transformation of an Amorphous Carbon Nanofilm upon Fe@Ag@Si Nanoparticle Landing and its Colloidal...

We report a novel method for generating magneto-plasmonic carbon nanofilms and nanoscrolls using a combination of two gas-phase synthetic techniques. Ternary Fe@Ag@Si "onion-like" nanoparticles (NPs) are produced by a magnetron sputtering inert gas condensation source and are in situ landed onto the surface of carbon nanofilms, which were previously deposited by a DC arc discharge technique. Subsequently, a polyethylenimine-mediated chemical exfoliation process is performed to obtain carbon nanoscrolls (CNS) with embedded NPs (CNS-NPs). Of note, the carbon nanofilms undergo an interfacial transition upon addition of NPs and become rich in the sp² phase. This transformation endows and enhances multiple functions, such as thermal conductivity and the plasmonic properties of the nanocomposites. The obtained two-dimentional (2D) nanocomposites not only exhibit a highly efficient surface-enhanced Raman scattering property, allowing sensitive detection of malachite green isothiocyanate (MGIT) and adenosine-triphosphate (ATP) molecules at concentrations as low as 1 × 10^-10 M, but also show enhanced near-infrared-responsive photothermal activity when forming stable colloidal 1D CNS-NPs. In addition, the CNS-NPs present an enhanced single- and two-photon fluorescence in comparison with pristine CNS and NPs. These results make them suitable for the rational fabrication of "all-in-one" multifunctional nanocomposites with tubular structures toward a wide range of biomedical solutions.