Controllable preparation of Ti3C2Tx/Ag composite as SERS substrate for ultrasensitive detection of 4-nitrobenzenethiol

Xiangxin Xue; Lei Chen; Cuimei Zhao; Ming Lu; Yu Qiao; Jing Wang; Jinghui Shi; Limin Chang

doi:10.1016/j.saa.2023.123019

Controllable preparation of Ti₃C₂T_x/Ag composite as SERS substrate for ultrasensitive detection of 4-nitrobenzenethiol

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2023 Dec 5:302:123019. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2023.123019. Epub 2023 Jun 24.

Authors

Xiangxin Xue¹, Lei Chen², Cuimei Zhao², Ming Lu³, Yu Qiao², Jing Wang², Jinghui Shi², Limin Chang⁴

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Preparation and Applications of Environmental Friendly Materials (Jilin Normal University), Ministry of Education, Changchun 130103, China. Electronic address: xuexiangxin0804@163.com.
² Key Laboratory of Preparation and Applications of Environmental Friendly Materials (Jilin Normal University), Ministry of Education, Changchun 130103, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Functional Materials Physics and Chemistry (Jilin Normal University), Ministry of Education, Changchun 130103, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Preparation and Applications of Environmental Friendly Materials (Jilin Normal University), Ministry of Education, Changchun 130103, China. Electronic address: changlimin2139@163.com.

PMID: 37385204
DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2023.123019

Abstract

Currently, metal carbonitride (MXene) has been identified as a hot research topic in the research area of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). In this study, Ti₃C₂T_x/Ag composite was fabricated as SERS substrate with different Ag contents. The fabricated Ti₃C₂T_x/Ag composites show good SERS behavior by detecting 4-Nitrobenzenethiol (4-NBT) probe molecules. Through calculation, the SERS enhancement factor (EF) of the Ti₃C₂T_x/Ag substrate was as high as 4.15 × 10⁶. It is worth noting that the detection limit of 4-NBT probe molecules can be achieved ultralow concentration of 10^-11 M. In this system, electromagnetic enhancement mechanism and chemical enhancement mechanism have synergistic effects on SERS phenomenon. Meanwhile, the Ti₃C₂T_x/Ag composite substrate exhibited good SERS reproducibility. In addition, the SERS detection signal hardly changed after 6 months of natural standing, and the substrate showed good stability. This work suggests that the Ti₃C₂T_x/Ag substrate could be used as a sensitivity SERS sensor for practical application, and could be applied in the field of environmental monitoring.

Keywords: 4-NBT; Ag NPs; Reproducibility; SERS; Sensitivity; Stability; Ti(3)C(2)T(x).