TiO2 nanofilms for surface-enhanced Raman scattering analysis of urea

In this study, titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanofilms with nanoparticle structure were grown in situ on metallic aluminum (Al) sheets using a simple sol-hydrothermal method. Al sheets were chosen because they can form Schottky junctions with TiO2 during the calcination process, thus achieving a tight bonding between the nanoparticles and the solid substrate, which cannot be achieved with conventional glass substrates. The substrates synthesized with different contents of titanium butoxide [Ti(OBu)4] were investigated using 4-mercaptobenzoic acid as a probe molecule, and the results showed that the substrate with 9 % of the total volume of Ti(OBu)4 had the highest surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) performance. As a low-cost SERS substrate that is simple to synthesize, it has excellent signal reproducibility, with a relative standard deviation of 4.51 % for the same substrate and 6.43 % for different batches of synthesized substrates. Meanwhile, the same batch of substrate can be stored at room temperature for at least 20 weeks and still maintain stable SERS signals. In addition, the synthetic substrate was used to quantitatively detect urea with a detection limit of 4.23 × 10−3 mol/L, which is comparable to the application of noble metal substrates. The feasibility of this method was verified in human urine, and the results were consistent with the clinical results, indicating that this method has great potential for clinical application.