Recent progress in the applications of graphene in surface-enhanced Raman scattering and plasmon-induced catalytic reactions

Abstract

Graphene continues to attract tremendous interest, owing to its excellent optical and electronic properties. Based on its unique features, graphene has been employed in the ever-expanding research fields. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) may be one of the significant applied fields where graphene can make a difference. Since its discovery, the SERS technique has been capable of ultra sensitively detecting chemical and biological molecules at very low concentration, even at the single molecule level, but some problems, such as irreproducible SERS signals, should be overcome before being practically applied for spectral analysis. Graphene can be a promising candidate to make up the deficiency of a conventional metal SERS substrate. Furthermore, graphene, serving as an enhancement material, is usually deemed as a chemically inert substance to isolate the interactions between metal and probe molecules. While, irradiated by laser, structure changes of graphene under specific conditions and the contributions of its high electron mobility in plasmon-induced catalytic reactions are often ignored. In this review, we mainly focus on the state-of-the-art applications of graphene in the fields of SERS and laser-induced catalytic reactions. The advances in informative Raman spectra of graphene are firstly reviewed. Then, the graphene related SERS substrates, including graphene-enhanced Raman scattering (GERS) and graphene-mediated SERS (G-SERS), are summarized. We finally highlight the catalytic reactions occurring on graphene itself and molecules adsorbed onto graphene upon laser irradiation.