Gold mesoflower arrays with sub-10 nm intraparticle gaps for highly sensitive and repeatable surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

Self-assembling Au mesoflower arrays are prepared using a polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) template on an iron substrate via a combined top-down/bottom-up nanofabrication strategy. The PMMA template with the holes around 300-500 nm in diameter is first fabricated by using polymer blend lithography on iron substrates, and the highly homogeneous Au mesoflower arrays with less than 10 nm intraparticle gaps are subsequently obtained by an in situ galvanic reaction between HAuCl4 solution and the iron substrate under optimal stirring of the solution as well as reaction time. Owing to the unique mesostructures and uniformity, Raman measurements show that the gold mesoflower arrays obtained demonstrated a strong and reproducible surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) enhancement on the order of ∼10(7)-10(8). The development of a SERS substrate based on the Au mesoflowers with high spatial density of hot spots, relatively low cost and facial synthesis provides a novel strategy for applications in chemical and biomolecular sensing.