Defect-Rich Monolayer MoS2 as a Universally Enhanced Substrate for Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering

Monolayer 2H-MoS2has been widely noticed as a typical transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC) for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). However, monolayer MoS2is limited to a narrow range of applications due to poor detection sensitivity caused by the combination of a lower density of states (DOS) near the Fermi energy level as well as a rich fluorescence background. Here, surfaced S and Mo atomic defects are fabricated on a monolayer MoS2with a perfect lattice. Defects exhibit metallic properties. The presence of defects enhances the interaction between MoS2and the detection molecule, and it increases the probability of photoinduced charge transfer (PICT), resulting in a significant improvement of Raman enhancement. Defect-containing monolayer MoS2enables the fluorescence signal of many dyes to be effectively burst, making the SERS spectrum clearer and making the limits of detection (LODs) below 10−8M. In conclusion, metallic defect-containing monolayer MoS2becomes a promising and versatile substrate capable of detecting a wide range of dye molecules due to its abundant DOS and effective PICT resonance. In addition, the synergistic effect of surface defects and of the MoS2main body presents a new perspective for plasma-free SERS based on the chemical mechanism (CM), which provides promising theoretical support for other TMDC studies.