A simple and reliable approach for the fabrication of nanoporous silver patterns for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy applications
Year: 2021
Authors: Capaccio A., Sasso A., Rusciano G.
Autors Affiliation: Univ Naples Federico II, Dept Phys E Pancini, Via Cintia, I-80126 Naples, Italy; Natl Res Council CNR, Natl Inst Opt INO, Via Campi Flegrei 34, I-80078 Pozzuoli, NA, Italy
Abstract: The fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures with a reliable, low cost and easy approach has become a crucial and urgent challenge in many fields, including surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) based applications. In this frame, nanoporous metal films are quite attractive, due to their intrinsic large surface area and high density of metal nanogaps, acting as hot- spots for Raman signal enhancement. In this paper, we report a detailed study on the fabrication of nanoporous silver-based SERS substrates, obtained by the application of two successive treatments with an Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) system, using synthetic air and Ar as feeding gases. The obtained substrates exhibit a quite broad plasmonic response, covering the Vis-NIR range, and an enhancement factor reaching 6.5 x 10(7), estimated by using 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (4-MBA) as probe molecule at 532 nm. Moreover, the substrates exhibit a quite good spatial reproducibility on a centimeter scale, which assures a good signal stability for analytical measurements. Globally, the developed protocol is easy and cost effective, potentially usable also for mass production thanks to the remarkable inter-batches reproducibility. As such, it holds promise for its use in SERS-based sensing platforms for sensitive detection of targets molecules.
Journal/Review: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Volume: 11 (1) Pages from: 22295-1 to: 22295-10
KeyWords: thermal-decomposition; sers detection; atomic oxygen; films; nanoparticlesDOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-01727-z