Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
J Am Chem Soc. 2010 Feb 10;132(5):1476-7. doi: 10.1021/ja909806t.
A silver galvanic displacement process on commercial aluminum foil has been carried out to produce cost-effective SERS substrates. The process is based on an extremely simple redox process where aluminum is oxidized while silver ions are reduced, yielding a final silver dendritic structure that offers a large surface area-to-volume ratio. XPS measurements confirmed the metallic nature of the formed dendrites. SERS substrates were fabricated by spreading of the dendrites on double side Scotch tape attached to a paper slide. Three different thiols were incubated to achieve SAM formation on the Ag dendrites and measured by Raman spectroscopy. The obtained spectra presented well resolved bands and provided valuable information regarding the orientation of the thiols. The high Raman intensity also demonstrates the high enhancement capacities of the produced silver structures. The overall method is cost-effective and allows the use of silver dendrite paste for the mass production of SERS-active substrates, including on flexible substrates and/or via screen printing.
商业铝箔上的银电置换工艺已被用于生产具有成本效益的 SERS 基底。该工艺基于一个非常简单的氧化还原过程，其中铝被氧化，而银离子被还原，生成最终的银枝状结构，提供了大的表面积与体积比。XPS 测量证实了形成的枝晶的金属性质。SERS 基底是通过将枝晶分散在粘贴在纸幻灯片上的双面 Scotch 胶带上制成的。三种不同的硫醇被孵育以在 Ag 枝晶上实现 SAM 形成，并通过拉曼光谱进行测量。所得到的光谱呈现出良好分辨的谱带，并提供了有关硫醇取向的有价值信息。高拉曼强度也证明了所产生的银结构具有高增强能力。该方法总体上具有成本效益，并允许使用银枝晶糊剂大规模生产 SERS 活性基底，包括在柔性基底上或通过丝网印刷。
