NbC MXene self-assembled Au nanoparticles simultaneously based on electromagnetic enhancement and charge transfer for surface enhanced Raman scattering.

Recent years, two-dimensional transition metal carbonitrides (MXene) have attracted much attention in the field of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). However, the relatively low enhancement of MXene is a major challenge. Herein, NbC-Au NPs nanocomposites were prepared by electrostatic self-assembly method, which have a synergistically conjugated SERS effect. The EM hot spots of NbC-Au NPs are significantly enlarged and expanded, while the surface Fermi level is decreased. This synergistic effect could improve the SERS performance of the system. Consequently, for the dye molecules CV and MeB, the detection limits reach 10 M and 10 M, respectively, while for biomolecule adenine, the detection limit is as low as 5 × 10 M. The results also show the good concentration-dependent linearity, uniformity, reproducibility and stability of SERS substrate. NbC-Au NPs could be a fast, sensitive and stable SERS platform for label-free and non-destructive detection. This work may expand the application of MXene based materials in the field of SERS.