Thin film substrates including crosslinked carbon nanostructures and related methods
A method of making a thin film substrate involves exposing carbon nanostructures to a crosslinker to crosslink the carbon nanostructures. The crosslinked carbon nanostructures are recovered and disposed on a support substrate. A thin film substrate includes crosslinked carbon nanostructures on a support substrate. The crosslinked carbon nanostructures have a crosslinker between the carbon nanostructures. A method of performing surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) on a SERS-active analyte involves providing a SERS-active analyte on such a thin film substrate, exposing the thin film substrate to Raman scattering, and detecting the SERS-active analyte.
1. A method of making a thin film substrate, comprising:
forming a solution of carbon nanostructures;
reacting the carbon nanostructures with a crosslinker to form a suspension comprising
crosslinked carbon nanostructures comprising covalent bonds between the crosslinked carbon nanostructures and the crosslinker, the crosslinker comprising a multivalent cation source compound comprising an oligothiophene, an oligoaniline, phenylene sulfide, pyrrole, urethane, a metallic oxide, boron oxide, acetoxysilane, or a combination thereof;
filtering the crosslinked carbon nanostructures from the suspension; and
disposing the crosslinked carbon nanostructures on a support substrate.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein reacting the carbon nanostructures with a crosslinker comprises exposing functionalized carbon nanostructures to the crosslinker.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein reacting the carbon nanostructures with a crosslinker comprises exposing carbon nanotubes or graphene to the crosslinker.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein reacting the carbon nanostructures with a crosslinker comprises crosslinking the carbon nanostructures in solution.