Fabrication of uniform arrays of silver nanoparticles on silicon by electrodeposition in ethanol solution and their use in SERS detection of difenoconazole pesticide

Abstract

An array of silver nanoparticles in a monolayer form with nanometer separation was electrodeposited onto silicon in an ethanol electrolyte and used as a SERS substrate in trace detection of difenoconazole pesticide.

Fabrication of Silver Nanostructures in the Form of Particles, Dendrites and Flowers on Silicon for Use in SERS Substrates

“…The fabrication of arrays of silver nanoparticles, nanodendrites or nanoflowers on silicon surface has been described in detail in our works [11,15,18,19]. In brief, to produce an array of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on silicon, both chemical and electrochemical deposition can be used.…”

“…These two electrodes were placed parallel to each other and immersed in an ethanolic solution containing 0.1 mM AgNO 3 and 0.14 M HF. Silver electrodeposition on Si was carried out for 4 minutes at a constant temperature of 17˚C under constant current mode, with a current density of 0.3 mA/cm 2 [11]. Note that before silver deposition, Si sample must be washed by soaking in ethanol (5 min), acetone (5 min), HNO 3 /H 2 O (1/1) (10 min), 5% HF (5 min) and deionized water (several times).…”

“…Next, if the silver nanoparticles or nanostructures are produced on silicon by the process of chemical reduction of some silver salt (e.g. silver nitrate -AgNO 3 ) which has been dissolved in solution, it should be noted that the silicon is also the reducing agent [10,11]. More specifically, in this process silver and silicon form a redox pair.…”

Synthesis of wool roll-like silver nanoflowers in an ethanol/water mixture and their application to detect traces of the fungicide carbendazim by SERS technique

“…The ethanol–water mixture was used on the basis of our finding that silver nanoparticles became significantly smaller when synthesized electrochemically in an ethanol electrolyte than in an aqueous one, which we reported in a previous work. 28 In the present study, we had to use a reaction medium that was a mixture of ethanol and water instead of pure ethanol due to the insolubility of AsA in ethanol. We would like to fabricate AgNFs with smaller sizes in the hope that the SERS substrate made from such AgNFs will provide a greater Raman enhancement and in fact our hopes were fulfilled.…”

A Review on Low-Dimensional Nanomaterials: Nanofabrication, Characterization and Applications

“…The fabrication of a uniform array of nanoparticles over substrate materials can be used for characterization and quantification of unknown species. For instance, Dao et al use the process of electrodeposition in the presence of ethanol (as electrolyte) to deposit a uniform array of silver nanoparticles on the surface of silicon wafer with a precision in scale of nanometers [ 8 ]. The fabricated surface was used as substrate in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for the detection and quantification of biological and organic compounds at very low concentrations.…”