Plasmonic Rare-Earth Nanosheets as Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering Substrates with High Sensitivity and Stability for Multicomponent Analysis

Looking for high-performance substrates is an important goal of current surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) research. Herein, ultrathin multilayer rhenium (Re) nanosheets as a rare-earth metal substrate are found to have extraordinary SERS performance. These Re nanosheets are prepared through a convenient low-temperature molten salt strategy, and their total thickness is similar to 5 nm, including 3-4 layers of ultrathin nanosheets with a thickness of only similar to 1 nm. The viscosity of molten salt plays a key role in the formation of these ultrathin layered nanosheets. These nanosheets exhibit a strong and well-defined localized surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect in the visible light region. The plasmonic Re nanosheets show excellent SERS performance with high sensitivity, chemical stability, and signal repeatability. The lowest detection limit for toxic compounds is 10(-12) mol, and the corresponding Raman enhancement factor is 9.1 x 10(8). A composite enhancement mechanism caused by localized-SPR and charge transport has played an important role in the rare-earth-SERS. High-throughput multiassay analysis is performed on the flexible membrane assembled from the Re nanosheets, which highlights that our system is capable of rapid separation and identification of the samples containing various analytes.

Automated summary

In this study, ultrathin multilayer rhenium (Re) nanosheets were found to exhibit extraordinary surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) performance as a rare-earth metal substrate. These Re nanosheets, prepared through a low-temperature molten salt strategy, showed high sensitivity, chemical stability, and signal repeatability. The composite enhancement mechanism caused by localized surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and charge transport played an important role in the rare-earth-SERS system. Furthermore, the Re nanosheets were capable of high-throughput multiassay analysis, allowing rapid separation and identification of various analytes.