Flexible plasmonic graphene oxide/heterostructures for dual-channel detection

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO) films are deposited on flexible Kapton substrates and selectively modified to conductive reduced graphene oxide (rGO) electrodes using laser patterning. Based on this, we design, fabricate, and test a flexible sensor integrating laser-reduced GO with silver plasmonic nanostructures. The fabricated device results in dual transduction channels: for electrochemical and plasmonic nanostructure-based surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) detection. The spectroscopic analysis verifying the formation of rGO and the modification by silver nanostructures is performed by Raman, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The morphological investigation is followed by optical and scanning electron microscopy imaging. In addition to pristine silver nanostructures, the Raman spectroscopy results show the formation of species such as Ag₂O, Ag₂CO₃, and Ag₂SO_x. A dual-channel sensor device based on electrochemical and plasmonic detection is fabricated as a demonstration of our Ag–rGO flexible concept architecture. The dual-channel device performance is successfully demonstrated in the electrochemical and SERS detection of 4-nitrobenzenethiol (4-NBT) using the same device. Our results show that without Ag nanostructures the sensitivity in the electrochemical and optical channels is not sufficient to detect 4-NBT. The performance and stability of the silver modified device are also verified. This work demonstrates an inexpensive, highly efficient, and greener way that is compatible with solution-processing technology for the production of flexible GO-based electrochemical and SERS detection devices integrated with plasmonic nanostructures.