Recent Advances in 2D Inorganic Nanomaterials for SERS Sensing

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy is a powerful and sensitive analytical tool that has found application in chemical and biomolecule analysis and environmental monitoring. Since its discovery in the early 1970s, a variety of materials ranging from noble metals to nanostructured materials have been employed as surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates. In recent years, 2D inorganic materials have found wide use in the development of SERS-based chemical sensors owing to their unique thickness dependent physico-chemical properties with enhanced chemical-based charge-transfer processes. Here, recent advances in the application of various 2D inorganic nanomaterials, including graphene, boron nitride, semiconducting metal oxides, and transition metal chalcogenides, in chemical detection via SERS are presented. The background of the SERS concept, including its basic theory and sensing mechanism, along with the salient features of different nanomaterials used as substrates in SERS, extending from monometallic nanoparticles to nanometal oxides, is comprehensively discussed. The importance of 2D inorganic nanomaterials in SERS enhancement, along with their application toward chemical detection, is explained in detail with suitable examples and illustrations. In conclusion, some guidelines are presented for the development of this promising field in the future.