Ti@TiO2 nanowire electrode with polydisperse gold nanoparticles for electrogenerated chemiluminescence and surface enhanced Raman spectroelectrochemistry

We present a multifunctional nanostructured electrode with Ti core and TiO2 shell (Ti@TiO2) nanowires (NWs) decorated with Au nanoparticles (NP) for studying spectroelectrochemistry (e.g., electrogenerated chemiluminescence, ECL) and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The so-called N3 dye (cis-[Ru (4,4'-COOH-2,2'-bpy)(2)(NCS)(2)]) is used as probe molecule for studying ECL and SERS enhancement capability of this nanostructured electrode. The SERS enhancement of N3 dye is determined by surface coverage and particle size of Au NPs and the surface self-assembly configuration of N3 on this new nanostructured electrode. ECL and in-situ SERS spectroelectrochemistry studies suggest that Au NP decorated Ti@TiO2 NW electrode can serve as a new spectroelectrochemistry platform for helping understand redox reaction mechanism and quantitative analysis with the combined methods of optical spectroscopy and electrochemistry.