Gold nanoparticles decorated 2D-WSe as a SERS substrate.

Developing well-defined surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-active substrates with superior performance is potentially attractive for many areas of research such as new generation sensing and analysis. Here, a nanohybrid SERS platform has been developed by decorating two-dimensional (2D) tungsten diselenide (WSe) flakes with zero-dimensional (0D) plasmonic gold nanoparticles (Au NPs). The morphology studies showed that under optimal conditions densely populated Au NPs were formed on the WSe surface. Here, we report the utility of the Au NPs/WSe nanohybrid structure as an efficient SERS substrate by performing concentration-dependent SERS measurements of a highly fluorescent molecule (Rhodamine 6G, R6G). The hybrid substrate displays promising SERS activity with the detection limit as low as 1 × 10 M, which is several orders of magnitude higher than the bare WSe on its own (10 M). The substrate also exhibits reliable signal stability and reproducibility. These results indicate that the nanohybrid structure has great potential in SERS applications.