Gold mesostructures with tailored surface topography and their self-assembly arrays for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

Fang, Jixiang; Du, Shuya; Lebedkin, Sergei; Li, Zhiyuan; Kruk, Robert; Kappes, Manfred; Hahn, Horst · Nano Lett · 2010

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We report a facile particle mediated aggregation protocol to synthesize "sea urchin"-like gold mesoparticles with tailored surface topography via a secondary nucleation and growth process. Surprisingly, these multitip Au mesoparticles are capable of self-assembling into monolayer or multiple layer arrays on Si substrates with a convincing reproducibility and homogeneity over large areas. Raman measurements show that these individual sea urchin-like multitipped gold mesoparticles exhibit a high enhancement of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). In addition, the sea urchin-like mesoparticle arrays display a further enhancement of SERS by 1 or 2 orders of magnitude over the individual mesoparticle due to the formation of additional hot spots between the particles. The current protocol stands out as a potentially interesting approach for the fabrication of technologically important SERS-based sensors.