ZnO Nanowire Arrays Decorated with Titanium Nitride Nanoparticles as Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering Substrates

Abstract: In this work, ZnO nanowire arrays decorated with titanium nitride (TiN) nanoparticles as surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates is demonstrated. ZnO nanowires were grown by hydrothermal synthesis while ~100 nm TiN nanoparticles were obtained by grinding commercial powders for several hours. They were then decorated on the ZnO nanowire arrays using acetone as the medium. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed the presence of TiN nanoparticles on the ZnO nanowires. TiN nanoparticles exhibited localized surface plasmon resonances at 430, 520 and 600 nm. SERS experiments using Nile Blue and Methylene Blue as the analyte molecules showed significant enhancement in the Raman signals. It is shown that the origin of the SERS effect is chemical in nature, due to charge transfer between the analyte molecule and the TiN nanoparticles. The current work, thus, represents a simple, cost-effective and facile method for the fabrication of TiN based surface enhanced Raman scattering substrates.