Molecular engineering of organic semiconductors enables noble metal-comparable SERS enhancement and sensitivity.

ABSTRACT: Nanostructured molecular semiconductor films are promising Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) platforms for both fundamental and technological research. Here, we report that a nanostructured film of the small molecule DFP-4T, consisting of a fully π-conjugated diperfluorophenyl-substituted quaterthiophene structure, demonstrates a very large Raman enhancement factor (>10⁵) and a low limit of detection (10^-9 M) for the methylene blue probe molecule. This data is comparable to those reported for the best inorganic semiconductor- and even intrinsic plasmonic metal-based SERS platforms. Photoluminescence spectroscopy and computational analysis suggest that both charge-transfer energy and effective molecular interactions, leading to a small but non-zero oscillator

SUBMITTER: Demirel G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6890673 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature