Synthesis of SiO@Ag Nanocomposite for Investigating Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence and Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy.

SiO@Ag nanocomposite (NC) has been synthesized by the chemical reduction and Stӧber method for Metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) of Rhodmine 6G (R6G) and Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) of Malachite green (MG). As-synthesized SiO@Ag NC indicated SiO nanosphere (NS) and Ag nanoparticle (NP) morphologies. The SiO@Ag NC was high quality with a well-defined crystallite phase with average sizes of 24 nm and 132 nm for Ag NP and SiO NC, respectively. By using SiO@Ag NC, the photoluminescence (PL) intensity of the R6G (at 59.17 ppm) was increased approximately 133 times. The SERS of the MG (at 1.0 ppm) with SiO@Ag NC as substrate clearly observed vibrational modes in MG dye at 798, 916, 1172, 1394, and 1616 cm. As a result, the SERS enhancement factor (EF) at 1172 cm obtained 6.3 × 10. This initial study points to the potential of SiO@Ag NC as a promising material for MEF and SERS substrates to detect dyes at low concentrations.