Bulk/Surface Defects Engineered TiO2 Nanotube Photonic Crystals Coupled with Plasmonic Gold Nanoparticles for Effective in vivo Near-Infrared Light Photoelectrochemical Detection

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) technique are of fundamental and practical importance, and has been widely used for solar energy conversion and experimental protection. Besides these important applications, an emerging and fast developing PEC application of PEC bioanalysis is receiving more attention both from academic and clinic communities. However, the typical PEC biosensing is still limited under illumination of ultraviolet and visible (UV/Vis) light, which hampers its in vivo detection in deep tissues. Ex-panding the optical absorption wavelength of photoelectrodes from UV/Vis light region into near infrared (NIR) light region is highly desirable due to its deep tissue penetrability and minimal invasiveness for organisms, but the exploration of facile strategy to implement efficient NIR absorption with biocompatible materials is still a big challenge. Herein, under guidance of theorical calculations, we propose a strategy through modulation of bulk/surface defects and decoration of Au nanoparticles on TiO...