Synthesis of large flower-like substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering

•A new, well-designed type of large flower-like SERS substrate is synthesized.•The new substrates exhibit high and reproducible SERS enhancement.•The new substrates are expected to be applied in SERS-based analytical devices.

A novel type of large flower-like SERS substrate was synthesized via a hard template process. The synthesis was performed by etching commercial 3 Å molecular sieves with dilute hydrofluoric acid to prepare a flower-like support followed by the deposition of silver nanoparticles onto the support by chemical reduction. The as-prepared substrates exhibit high and reproducible SERS with an enhancement factor of ∼1.4 × 106, estimated using 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (4-MBA) as a model adsorbate. The method is low cost and avoids the use of nonvolatile surfactants in the preparation process, so may have potential application in the development of SERS-based analytical devices.

Graphical abstractA new, well-designed type of large flower-like SERS substrate is synthesized by treating 3 Å molecular sieves with dilute hydrofluoric acid to prepare a support and then plating silver nanoparticles on this support.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide