Gas-phase synthesis of mesoporous films of Ag/C:H:N:O core-satellite nanoparticles for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

• Published in: Materials letters 2021-12, Vol.305, p.130797, Article 130797
• Main Authors: Kuzminova, Anna, Procházka, Marek, Kylián, Ondřej
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomolecules; Core-satellite nanoparticles; Gas aggregation source; Magnetron sputtering; Materials science; Nanofabrication; Nanomaterials; Nanoparticles; Raman spectroscopy; Silver; Spectrum analysis; Substrates; Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy
• ISSN: 0167-577X; 1873-4979
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matlet.2021.130797

[Display omitted] •SERS activity of gas-phase synthesized of Ag/C:H:N:O NPs coatings is tested.•The analytical enhancement factor is found to be 1.1 × 106 for methylene blue.•The superior SERS activity of produced films is due to their mesoporous character.•These results pave the way for the solvent-free production of SERS-active platforms. Rapid development in the field of detection of biomolecules by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is enabled by enormous progress in the nanofabrication that nowadays allows for the tailor-made production of nanomaterials that can serve as effective and reliable SERS-active platforms. Among others, heterogeneous mesoporous coatings constitute an important class of nanomaterials that receives increasing attention. In this study, we investigate the possibility of producing such nanomaterials using a novel, one-step, and fully solvent-free technique. This approach employs the in-flight decoration of gas-phase synthesized C:H:N:O plasma polymer cores with nanometre-sized silver nanoparticles. Such physically produced Ag/C:H:N:O core-satellite nanoparticles upon deposition on a planar substrate spontaneously form mesoporous nanoparticle films with SERS-active Ag nanoparticles evenly distributed on the surface of supporting C:H:N:O cores. As shown, such produced nanomaterials exhibit, due to their structure, the SERS enhancement factor of (1.1 ± 0.2) × 106, i.e., the enhancement factor one order of magnitude higher than the value 1 × 105 typically reported for silver nanostructures prepared by commonly used magnetron sputtering onto planar substrates.