Synthesis of Silver Nanostructures and their Application in Highly Sensitive SERS Sensors

Abstract

<p class="p1">A comparison of Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) activity of chemically synthesised silver nanostructures with different shapes is reported. The silver nanostructures of cubical, prism and wire like morphology were synthesised using chemical synthesis route and utilised as SERS substrates. The sensors were fabricated by spin coating these materials over a Silicon or glass substrate. The fabricated sensors were used to analyse response with two different analytes, 4-Mercaptobenzoic acid and Rhodamine 6G under different concentrations. The signal enhancement was compared with a silver coated thin film over glass substrate and it was observed that the enhancement of the order of 10<span class="s1"><sup>3 </sup></span>is achieved. The nanowire performed better than the other forms of silver and gave a higher signal enhancement for all the analytes as compared to other nanostructures. The fabricated sensors may be useful for various applications including explosive and biowarfare agent detection.</p>

Recent Advances in Silver Nanostructured Substrates for Plasmonic Sensors

“…SERS has the potential to detect chemical and biomolecules at a single-molecule level [ 15 , 145 ]. Therefore, is employed in various fields, e.g., medical diagnostics [ 15 , 17 , 146 ], food safety and security [ 147 , 148 ], environmental monitoring [ 149 , 150 ] and defense and security [ 151 , 152 , 153 , 154 ]. An appropriate laser excitation induces a local intense electromagnetic field in metal nanoparticles, which enormously enhances the Raman (as well as the fluorescence) signal of the molecule adsorbed on the surface.…”

Polyol Silver Nanowire Synthesis and the Outlook for a Green Process

“…Srivastava et al investigated the effect of AgNO 3 concentration on the nanostructure morphology and size for highly sensitive SERS sensors. They showed that nanowires can be synthesized at lower concertation of AgNO 3 whereas higher concentration caused formation of nanocubes [95].…”

Synthesis of silver nanoparticles by Nd:YAG laser and study Optical Limiting Behavior of colloid

“…metal nanostructures have appropriately found their application in the Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering or (SERS) sensors since they demonstrate the property of Surface Plasmon resonance or LSPR [1]. Pulse laser ablation in liquid (PLAL) has unique advantages for synthesis of nanostructured particles like high purity, simple, rapid, does not require sophisticated vacuum equipment and does not require chemicals as in wet chemical methods which contaminate the end product and also pollute the environment [2,3].…”