Facile fabrication of ternary TiO2-gold nanoparticle-graphene oxide nanocomposites for recyclable surface enhanced Raman scattering

A bi-functional ternary nanocomposite was developed by decorating TiO 2 and gold nanoparticles on the reduced graphene oxide nanosheets (TiO 2 -Au-rGO) for recyclable surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection. TiO 2 -Au-rGO nanocomposites have been shown to demonstrate the superior SERS performances, which can be used for highly sensitive detection of rhodamine 6 G with a limit of detection of 1.2 × 10 −10 M. Subsequently, the surface can be cleaned automatically by the photocatalytic degradation of the adsorbed analytes into inorganic small molecules under visible light irradiation . This can be attributed to the excellent photocatalytic degradation ability, leading to a recyclable SERS application. After being used four times, their excellent SERS and catalytic performances can still be retained. These results suggest that the TiO 2 -Au-rGO nanocomposites can provide a new strategy for fabricating recyclable SERS substrates, which are highly desirable for SERS practical application.