Self-assembled dynamics of silver nanoparticles and self-assembled dynamics of 1,4-benzenedithiol adsorbed on silver nanoparticles: Surface-enhanced Raman scattering study

Self-assembled dynamics of silver nanoparticles and self-assembled dynamics of 1,4-benzenedithiol (1,4-BDT) adsorbed on silver nanoparticles were investigated experimentally with surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and theoretically with density functional theory (DFT) and finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. The absorption spectroscopy of 1,4-BDT in silver sol at different time intervals was measured, which give the indirect evidence of self-assembled dynamics of silver nanoparticles and self-assembled dynamics of 1,4-benzenedithiol (1,4-BDT) adsorbed on silver nanoparticles. To obtain the direct evidence of self-assembled dynamics of silver nanoparticles and self-assembled dynamics of 1,4-benzenedithiol (1,4-BDT) adsorbed on silver nanoparticles, the SERS of 1,4-BDT were measured experimentally and investigated theoretically. The appearances of S–S stretching band (revealing the formation of multilayers of 1,4-BDT), and strongly enhanced S–C stretching, C–C ring stretching vibrational modes clearly show self-assembled dynamics of 1,4-BDT.