Terminal Groups-Dependent Near-Field Enhancement Effect of Ti
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Yang et al. Nanoscale Res Lett (2021) 16:60 https://doi.org/10.1186/s11671-021-03510-5 NANO EXPRESS Open Access Terminal Groups-Dependent Near-Field Enhancement Efect of Ti3C2Tx Nanosheets Ying‑Ying Yang1, Wen‑Tao Zhou1, Wei‑Long Song1, Qing‑Quan Zhu1, Hao‑Jiang Xiong1, Yu Zhang1, Sheng Cheng2, Pai‑Feng Luo1 and Ying‑Wei Lu1,3* Abstract Both multilayered (ML) and few‑layered (FL) Ti3C2Tx nanosheets have been prepared through a typical etching and delaminating procedure. Various characterizations confrm that the dominant terminal groups on ML‑Ti3C2Tx and FL‑ Ti3C2Tx are diferent, which have been assigned to O‑related and hydroxyl groups, respectively. Such deviation of the dominant terminals results in the diferent physical and chemical performance and eventually makes the nanosheets have diferent potential applications. In particular, before coupling to Ag nanoparticles, ML‑Ti3C2Tx can present stronger near‑feld enhancement efect; however, Ag/FL‑Ti3C2Tx hybrid structure can confne stronger near‑feld due to the electron injection, which can be ofered by the terminated hydroxyl groups. Keywords: Multilayered Ti3C2Tx, Few‑layered Ti3C2Tx, Terminal group, Near‑feld enhancement, Coupling Introduction of Ti2C and Ti3C2 [11], and O-related terminal groups Ti3C2Tx, a typical two-dimensional layered transi- could enhance the lithium ion storage capacity of various tion metal carbide with a graphene-like structure, has nanosheets [12]. Apart from the multifarious applications attracted great attention due to its wide potential appli- by taking advantage of the unique layered structure with cations in felds of catalysis, energy, and medicine thanks certain terminal groups, it is found that Ti 3C2Tx can pre- to its unique properties, especially large specifc surface sent plasmonic performance as well, and the resonance area and so on [1–6]. It has been demonstrated that the wavelength can be tuned by the terminals and/or thick- physical and chemical performance of Ti3C2Tx could ness [13], indicating that Ti3C2Tx could confne elec- be determined by its terminal groups, referred as Tx in tromagnetic feld under excitation and eventually can the formula (usually are –F, –O and/or –OH), which be employed as broadband perfect absorbers [14, 15], can be adjusted by choosing diferent preparation pro- Terahertz shielding devices [16], and photonic and/or cedures [7, 8]. For example, some experimental results molecular detectors or sensors [17–19]. However, most indicate that the hydrophilic hydrophobic equilibrium of previous works either concerned the etching condition of Ti3C2Tx can be modulated by interacting some agent dependent terminal groups [20] or focused on the over- groups with –O terminal groups on Ti 3C2Tx [9], and the all plasmonic performance [21]. Terefore, it is interest- Pb adsorption capacity can be improved by connect- ing to systematically study the relationship between the ing with hydroxyl groups on Ti3C2Tx [10]. In the mean- terminal groups of Ti 3C2Tx with diferent layers and their time, some theoretical works have determined that the near-feld enhancement efect, since such efect has been attached methoxy groups could improve the stability widely employed in many optical related felds, such as surface-enhanced Raman scattering detection, due to the strong confned electromagnetic feld [22–24]. *Correspondence: [email protected] In this work, in order to simplify the terminal options 1 School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University and avoid using hazardous HF, the mixed etching agent of Technology, Hefei 230009, People’s Republic of China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article of LiF and HCl has been used to minimize the fuorine © The Author(s) 2021. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creat iveco mmons. org/ licen ses/ by/4. 0/. Yang et al. Nanoscale Res Lett (2021) 16:60 Page 2 of 7 terminals (–F) in the etching process [25]. Furthermore, difraction (XRD) patterns in the range of 2θ = 5°–80° the procedure of sonication in water has been carried out with a step of 0.02° were recorded on a powder difrac- to delaminate the multilayered Ti 3C2Tx (ML-Ti3C2Tx) tometer (X’Pert PRO MPD). Zeta potentials and surface into few-layered Ti3C2Tx (FL-Ti3C2Tx) without intro- states of ML-Ti3C2Tx and FL-Ti3C2Tx were measured by a ducing any other reagents. As a result, the obtained Malvern Zetasizer (Nano-ZS90) and an X-ray photoelec- Ti3C2Tx with diferent layers in this work will be mainly tron spectroscopy (XPS, ESCALAB 250Xi), respectively. terminated by either O- or OH-related groups, which Te absorption and Raman performance of samples were make ML-Ti3C2Tx or FL-Ti3C2Tx nanosheets reveal dif- recorded by a UV–Vis spectrophotometer (CARY 5000) ferent physical and chemical properties and eventually and a Raman spectroscopy (LabRAM HR Evolution), present diferent near-fled enhancement performance. respectively. Te excitation wavelength of Raman detec- In addition, the hybrid structures composed of Ti3C2Tx tion was 532 nm, and the laser powers for usual Raman and Ag nanoparticles have been prepared and the cor- measurements and surface enhanced Raman scattering responding coupling efects have been explored as well. (SERS) characterizations were 12.5 mW and 0.05 mW, Such exploration regarding terminal dependent plas- respectively. monic performance of these Ti3C2Tx with diferent layers and confgurations could help people to select suitable Results and Discussion Ti3C2Tx-based materials in some specifc optical felds. Both morphologies of ML-Ti3C2Tx and FL-Ti3C2Tx are shown in Fig. 1a, b and c, d, respectively. It can be seen Methods that FL-Ti3C2Tx looks more transparent, indicating that Preparation of Ti C T Nanosheets 3 2 x its layer number is much less than ML-Ti3C2Tx. Figure 1e ML-Ti3C2Tx was prepared by following a modifed previ- shows the XRD patterns of all samples. Ti3AlC2 and ML- ously reported method [26]. Te typical etching process Ti3C2Tx show their typical phase features, which agree started with the preparation of LiF solution by dissolv- well with some previous reports [26–28]. It can be readily ing 1 g of LiF in 20 mL of dilute HCl solution (6 M) with observed that the intense (002) peak of ML-Ti3C2Tx shifts stirring. Subsequently, 1 g of Ti3AlC2 powder was slowly to the lower angle comparing with that of Ti 3AlC2, imply- added into the above solution, and the etching process ing the removal of Al atoms from the MAX phase and the was kept at 70 °C for 45 h under stirring. Te wet sedi- expanding along the c axis. Compared with the difrac- ment was then washed several times with deionized water tion peaks of ML-Ti3C2Tx, both broadened (002) peak until the pH of the suspension liquid was bigger than 6. and disappeared (004) and (008) peaks of FL-Ti3C2Tx Afterward, the suspension was collected and named as determined the successful preparation of the few-layered ML-Ti3C2Tx. To obtain FL-Ti3C2Tx, ML-Ti3C2Tx was fur- sample [29]. Moreover, the (002) peak of FL-Ti3C2Tx ther delaminated by sonication for 2 h in Ar atmosphere locates at a little higher angle than that of ML-Ti3C2Tx, and followed by centrifugation at 3500 rpm for 1 h. indicating that ML-Ti3C2Tx and FL-Ti3C2Tx should be terminated with diferent groups, which can be attrib- Preparation of Ag/Ti3C2Tx Nanocomposites uted to -O and -OH, respectively, since the as-prepared Te synthesis of the hybrid materials was started with the Ti3C2Tx (ML-Ti3C2Tx) will not be mainly terminated with preparation of the mixed solution of AgNO3 (12.5 mL, -F without HF as etching agent and the corresponding c 2 mmol/L) and NaC6H5O7 (12.5 mL, 4 mmol/L) at room parameters attracted from the XRD patterns agree well temperature. After rapidly adding PVP solution (25 mL, with what previous works reported [25, 30]. 0.1 g/mL), Ti3C2Tx solution (5 mL, 0.05 mg/mL) was Figure 2a shows Raman spectra of ML-Ti3C2Tx and then slowly added into the mixed solution with stir- FL-Ti3C2Tx. As it can be seen that the Raman signals in ring for 10 min at room temperature. Subsequently, the the range of 200–800 cm−1 for both samples are quite above-mixed solution was heated up to 70 °C to react similar. Among them, the peak at 717 cm−1 is due to for 45 h. After centrifuging, the products were kept in the A1g symmetrical out-of-plane vibration of Ti and C −1 water and named as Ag/ML-Ti3C2Tx and Ag/FL-Ti3C2Tx, atoms, while the peaks at 244, 366 and 570 cm are aris- respectively, according to the type of Ti 3C2Tx used in the ing from the in-plane (shear) modes of Ti, C and surface procedure. terminal groups, respectively [31, 32]. As for the Raman signals ranging from 800 to 1800 cm−1, comparing Characterization with ML-Ti3C2Tx, FL-Ti3C2Tx not only shows stronger A feld emission scanning electron microscope (Carl Raman signal at 1580 cm−1 (G band), but also presents ZEISS Sigma) and two transmission electron microscopes two emerging Raman bands at 1000–1200 cm−1 and (JEM-2100F and JEM-1400Flash) have been employed to 1300 cm−1 (D band).