TiO2 multi-leg nanotubes for Surface-enhanced Raman scattering

In the recent past, significant research efforts have been put forth to fabricate low-cost noble metal-free substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) applications. Here we propose semiconducting TiO2 multi-leg nanotubes (TiO2 MLNTs, with and without the gold nanoparticle coating) as SERS substrates. TiO2 MLNTs show unique multi-leg morphology compared to the conventional non-multi-leg tubes and possess better light-harvesting properties. TiO2 MLNTs are fabricated with a simple and versatile single-step electrochemical anodization method. Remarkable high SERS sensitivity is observed towards the detection of Methylene blue (MB), up to nM concentration (E.F. ~104). The same is attributed to the resonantly matched photonic absorption edge of TiO2 MLNTs with the wavelength of incident laser probe light. On the other hand, gold nanoparticle-coated TiO2 MLNTs demonstrated further enhancement in SERS sensitivity (E.F. ~105, for nM of MB) facilitated by the synergy that exists between the plasmonic modes (LSPRs) of Au and the photonic absorption mode of TiO2 MLNTs.