Recyclable non-metal surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrate based on graphene oxide/ZIF-67 nanocomposites

Abstract

The design and synthesis of a highly sensitive non-metal surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate with excellent reusable properties is of significant interest because of its vast prospective applications in real-world and complicated detection environments. Here, an efficient non-noble-metal SERS substrate has been developed based on highly ordered arrays of graphene oxide (GO) decorated with ZIF-67 nanoparticles (GO/ZIF-67). Profiting from the synergistic effect of ZIF-67 and GO, the GO/ZIF-67 nanocomposite shows a high performance in terms of sensitivity and reproducibility. The limit of detection obtained from GO/ZIF-67 for rhodamine 6G probe molecules is at the level of 10⁻¹⁰ M, which is lower than previously reported limits for GO (10⁻⁸ M) and ZIF-67 (10⁻⁷ M) individually. Moreover, the GO/ZIF-67 nanocomposite can be renewed for reuse several times due to the exceptional thermal properties of graphene oxide.