Self-Assembly of Silver Nanowire Films for Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Applications

• Published in: Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 13; no. 8; p. 1358
• Main Authors: Pang, Yanzhao, Jin, Mingliang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 13.04.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Aqueous solutions; Arrays; Communication; Ethanol; Excitation; Lasers; Liquid surfaces; Microscopy; Morphology; Nanoparticles; Nanotechnology; Nanowires; Power; Raman spectra; Reproducibility; Resonance; Rhodamine 6G; Self-assembly; Silicon wafers; Silver; silver nanowire; Software; Spectrum analysis; Substrates; surface enhanced Raman scattering applications; silver nanowire; self-assembly; surface enhanced Raman scattering applications
• ISSN: 2079-4991; 2079-4991
• DOI: 10.3390/nano13081358

The development of SERS detection technology is challenged by the difficulty in obtaining SERS active substrates that are easily prepared, highly sensitive, and reliable. Many high-quality hotspot structures exist in aligned Ag nanowires (NWs) arrays. This study used a simple self-assembly method with a liquid surface to prepare a highly aligned AgNW array film to form a sensitive and reliable SERS substrate. To estimate the signal reproducibility of the AgNW substrate, the RSD of SERS intensity of 1.0 × 10 M Rhodamine 6G (R6G) in an aqueous solution at 1364 cm was calculated to be as low as 4.7%. The detection ability of the AgNW substrate was close to the single molecule level, and even the R6G signal of 1.0 × 10 M R6G could be detected with a resonance enhancement factor (EF) as high as 6.12 × 10 under 532 nm laser excitation. The EF without the resonance effect was 2.35 × 10 using 633 nm laser excitation. FDTD simulations have confirmed that the uniform distribution of hot spots inside the aligned AgNW substrate amplifies the SERS signal.