Recently, carbon nanomaterial-supported plasmonic nanocrystals
used as high-performance surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)
substrates have attracted increasing attention due to their ultra-high
sensitivity of detection. However, most of the work focuses on the
design of 2-D planar substrates with traditional plasmonic structures,
such as nanoparticles, nanorods, nanowires, and so forth. Here, we
report a novel strategy for the preparation of high-yield Au nanohydrangeas
on three-dimensional porous polydopamine (PDA)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/carbon
nanotube (CNT) foams. The structures and growth mechanisms of these
specific Au nanocrystals are systematically investigated. PDA plays
the role of both a reducing agent as well as an anchoring site for
Au nanohydrangeas’ growth. We also show that the ratio of surfactant
KBr to the gold precursor (HAuCl4) is key to obtain these
structures in a manner of high production. Moreover, the substrate
of the CNT foam–Au nanohydrangea hybrid can be employed as
SERS sensors and can detect the analytes down to 10–9 M.