Morphology, composition, and structure of semiconductor nanomaterials play important roles in determination of their unique physical and chemical.  In this presentation,a facile chemical etching method will be introduced to tune the structures of cuprous oxide microcrystals which resulted in excellent performance in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS).  Microscopic and spectroscopic techniques were utilized to investigate the structures of cuprous oxide during the chemical etching, as well as the assessment of the SERS sensitivity.  Such chemical approach can significantly enhance the SERS capabilities of the Cu2O microcrystals with an enhancement factor up to 106.  The increasing SERS sensitivity is attributed to the generation of Raman hot spots related to the etching-induced rough surface, sharp tips and edges, as well as the strong chemical interactions between the probe molecules and the SERS substrates.  Our work provides a simple method to modify the semiconductor nanomaterials and induce SERS activity, thus expanding cuprous oxide microcrystals into even broader applications.

Facile chemical etching induced structure evolution of cuprous oxide microcrystals and their SERS application

247th National Meeting (2014)

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