Yifan Wang,Jiarong Niu,Xin Jin,Xiaoming Qian,Changfa Xiao,Wenyu Wang
Electromagnetic (EM) metamaterial is a composite material with EM stealth properties, which is constructed by artificially reverse engineering metal split resonance rings (SRR). However, the greatest limitation of EM metamaterials is that they can only stealth at a fixed and lower frequency of EM waves, and modern processing techniques still cannot meet the accuracy requirements to fabric nano-size structural unit. Nano-sized and even ultra-small SRR at molecular level are promising arrays to realize the ability of EM stealth function at a higher frequency, although it has proven challenging to synthesize long, straight, connected molecular SRR, and also difficult to arrange those molecular SRR into a strict array. Here, the study overcomes this challenge and demonstrates that the fabric of polypyrrole molecular SRR achieves an ultra-small inner diameter of 2.49 Å and realizes the arrays arrangement at molecular level. Furthermore, the study exploits the EM stealth function and verifies that such arrays of molecular SRR with 2.49 Å have the ability to reach high-performance EM stealth in the range of 10 6 –10 16 Hz. This design concept opens a pathway for developing new metamaterials with broadband EM wave stealth and also serves the wider range of new applications.
Improving the photo-induced charge transfer (PICT) efficiency by adjusting the energy levels difference between adsorbed probe molecules and substrate materials is a key factor for boosting the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) based on the chemical mechanism (CM). Herein, a new route to improve the SERS activity of two-dimensional (2D) selenium and tin compounds (SnSex, 1 ≤ x ≤ 2) by the hybrid phase materials is researched. The physical properties and the energy band structure of SnSex were analyzed. The enhanced SERS activity of 2D SnSex can be attribute to the coupling of the PICT resonance caused by the defect energy levels induced by Se vacancy and the molecular resonance Raman scattering (RRS). This established a relationship between the physical properties and SERS activity of 2D layered materials. The resonance probe molecule, rhodamine (R6G), which is used to detect the SERS performance of SnSex nanosheets. The enhancement factor (EF) of R6G on the optimized SnSe1.35 nanosheets can be as high as 2.6 × 106, with a detection limit of 10−10 M. The SERS result of the environmental pollution, thiram, shows that the SnSex nanosheets have a practical application in trace SERS detection, without the participation of metal particles. These results demonstrate that, through hybrid phase materials, the SERS sensitivity of 2D layered nanomaterials can be improved. It provides a kind of foreground non-metal SERS substrate in monitoring or detecting and provide a deep insight into the chemical SERS mechanism based on 2D layered materials.
W ith the advancement of nanomaterials for surface-enhanced Raman scattering(SERS) detection, a deeper understanding of the chemical mechanism(CM) and further applications has been achieved. Herein, we prepared a porous tungsten trioxide(WO 3 ) film by the pulse electrodeposition method, and constructed a WO 3 film SERS aptasensor. With methylene blue(MB) as the adsorption molecule, the developed WO 3 film SERS aptasensor revealed remarkable Raman activity. Through experimental data and theoretical calculations, we found that the significant SERS enhancement[enhancement factor(EF)=1.5× 10 6 ] was due to the CM based on charge transfer and molecular resonance. Utilizing the Raman response of MB on the WO 3 film and specific aptamers, we successfully developed the aptamer sensor by covalently attaching the MB modified aptamer to the WO 3 film. The sensor realized the specific and sensitive determination of vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) with the detection limit down to 8.7 pg/mL. In addition, the developed aptasensor indicated the excellent selectivity among other interferences, such as metal ions, reactive oxygen species(ROS), and proteins. This WO 3 film SERS aptasensor not only contributed to the study of the enhancement mechanism of semiconductor material, but also provided a powerful platform for the sensitive detection of VEGF, possessing a great potential in the real-time monitoring of biomarkers of glioblastoma in vitro .