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Highlights Nb2C and Ta2C MXenes exhibit remarkable SERS performance with the enhancement factors of 3.0 × 106 and 1.4 × 106, which is synergistically enabled by the PICT resonance enhancement and electromagnetic enhancement.The excellent SERS sensitivity endows Ta2C MXene with the capability to sensitively detect and accurately identify the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which is beneficial to achieve real-time monitoring and early warning of novel coronavirus. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s40820-020-00565-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users., The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 has seriously threatened human health. Rapidly and sensitively detecting SARS-CoV-2 viruses can help control the spread of viruses. However, it is an arduous challenge to apply semiconductor-based substrates for virus SERS detection due to their poor sensitivity. Therefore, it is worthwhile to search novel semiconductor-based substrates with excellent SERS sensitivity. Herein we report, for the first time, Nb2C and Ta2C MXenes exhibit a remarkable SERS enhancement, which is synergistically enabled by the charge transfer resonance enhancement and electromagnetic enhancement. Their SERS sensitivity is optimized to 3.0 × 106 and 1.4 × 106 under the optimal resonance excitation wavelength of 532 nm. Additionally, remarkable SERS sensitivity endows Ta2C MXenes with capability to sensitively detect and accurately identify the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Moreover, its detection limit is as low as 5 × 10−9 M, which is beneficial to achieve real-time monitoring and early warning of novel coronavirus. This research not only provides helpful theoretical guidance for exploring other novel SERS-active semiconductor-based materials but also provides a potential candidate for the practical applications of SERS technology. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s40820-020-00565-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

This paper reports the design of Ag-Al2O3-Ag heterojunctions based on Ag nanorods (AgNRs) and their applications as thermally stable and ultrasensitive substrates of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Specifically, an ultrathin Al2O3 capping layer of 10 nm on top of AgNRs serves to slow down the surface diffusion of Ag at high temperatures. Then, an additional Ag layer on top of the capping layer creates AgNRs-Al2O3-Ag heterojunctions, which lead to giant enhancement of electromagnetic fields within the Al2O3 gap regions that could boost the SERS enhancement. As a result of this design, the SERS substrates are thermally stable up to 200 &deg, C, which has been increased by more than 100 &deg, C compared with bare AgNRs, and their sensitivity is about 400% that of pure AgNRs. This easy yet effective capping approach offers a pathway to fabricate ultrasensitive, thermally stable and easily prepared SERS sensors, and to extend SERS applications for high-temperature detections, such as monitoring in situ the molecule reorientation process upon annealing. Such simultaneous achievement of thermal stability and SERS sensitivity represents a great advance in the design of SERS sensors and will inspire the fabrication of novel hetero-nanostructures.

SiO2/TiO2 core/shell (T-rex) beads were exploited as “all-in-one” building-block materials to create analytical assays that combine plasmon-free surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and surface assisted laser desorption/ionization (SALDI) mass spectrometry (RaMassays). Such a multi-modal approach relies on the unique optical properties of T-rex beads, which are able to harvest and manage light in both UV and Vis range, making ionization and Raman scattering more efficient. RaMassays were successfully applied to the detection of small (molecular weight, M.W.