A Comparative Study of Gold Nanocubes, Octahedra, and Rhombic Dodecahedra as Highly Sensitive SERS Substrates

Abstract

Gold nanocubes, octahedra, and rhombic dodecahedra with roughly two sets of particle sizes have been successfully synthesized via a seed-mediated growth approach. All six samples were analyzed for comparative surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity. All of these Au nanostructures were found to yield strong enhancement at a thiophenol concentration of 10(-7) M and are excellent SERS substrates. Rhombic dodecahedra with a rhombus edge length of 32 nm showed significantly better enhancement than the other samples and can reach a detection limit of 10(-8) M. Simulations of the binding energies of thiophenol on the different faces of gold and electric near-field intensities of these nanocrystals have been performed to evaluate the experimental results. Superior SERS activity of these nanocrystals can be expected toward the detection of many other molecules.

Standing Gold Nanorod Arrays as Reproducible SERS Substrates for Measurement of Pesticides in Apple Juice and Vegetables

“…The self‐assembling approach is much more cost‐effective and easier to operate than lithographic methods. Gold nanostructures, such as nanospheres, nanocubes, and nanorods, are widely used to fabricate SERS substrates by evaporation‐induced self‐assembling method (Lee and others ; Wu and others ; Thai and others ; Wei and Ge ). Among different nanostructures, gold nanorods have received much attention due to their anisotropic structures, which can induce intense electromagnetic field (Alvarez‐Puebla and others ; Thai and others ; Peng and others ; Wei and Ge ).…”

A glassy carbon electrode modified with porous gold nanosheets for simultaneous determination of dopamine and acetaminophen

“…For instance, gold nanoparticles have been widely used in surface plasmonics [22], surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) [23], chemical and biological sensing [24].…”

SERS Nanoparticles in Medicine: From Label-Free Detection to Spectroscopic Tagging

“…−179 Anisotropic structures offering greater field enhancements include nanocubes, 180−183 nanorods, 178,184−186 nanotriangles, 91,187,188 nanopolyhedrons,189 along with structures with spikey protrusions like nanostars190−192 and nanourchins,193,194 and nanoflowers.195−197 …”