Surface-Modified Two-Dimensional Titanium Carbide Sheets for Intrinsic Vibrational Signal-Retained Surface-Enhanced...

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) employing a non-noble substrate in comparison with conventional noble-metal ones offers advantages of low cost and rich selection of candidates; however, its application has been seriously hindered by its unsatisfactory detection sensitivity, poor uniformity, and undesirable modification of vibrational signals via changing the orientation and/or polarizability of probe molecules. Here, an unusually sensitive but nonselective enhancement was achieved by employing titanium carbide sheets modified with aluminum oxyanions in situ as active supports for Raman measurement. The analyte molecules adopted a conformation similar to what they adopt on a bare substrate, while closely interacting with the aluminum oxyanion surface, which leads to the rare observation of highly sensitive but nonselective enhancement with a detection limit close to the pM level. With the substrate surface roughness in the nanometer region, an outstanding uniformity with a relative standard deviation of less than 4.3% was achieved. In addition, the SERS effect on the modified titanium carbide sheets was shown to be applicable to a wide range of analyte molecules, including both organic dyes and trace harmful compounds. The success of the work demonstrates the feasibility of surface tuning to improve the SERS effect, and it introduces a new window for two-dimensional materials in SERS applications.