Fabrication of Hybrid Silver Microstructures from Vermiculite Templates as SERS Substrates

Nanomaterials
Nicolas Pazos-PerezR A Alvarez-Puebla

Abstract

There is great interest in developing complex, 3D plasmonic materials with unusual structural properties. This can be achieved via template-assisted approaches exploiting scaffold elements to engineer unique plasmonic substrates, which would be otherwise impossible to synthesize. Herein, we present a novel, simple, and low-cost template-assisted method for producing interconnected 3-D silver microstructures by utilizing vermiculite, a well-known silicate, as both in-situ reductant and template for silver growth. The silicate network of the vermiculite can be easily removed by dissolution with hydrofluoric acid, which, simultaneously, leads to the formation of a magnesium fluoride skeleton supporting a plasmonically active silver film. Optical, morphological, and chemical properties of the materials were extensively investigated, revealing, for example, that hybrid silver microstructures can be exploited as valuable SERS substrates over a broad spectral range of excitation wavelengths.

References

Mar 31, 2005·Journal of Colloid and Interface Science·Maria G da FonsecaClaudio Airoldi
Apr 4, 2006·Journal of Colloid and Interface Science·M MalandrinoE Mentasti
Jun 9, 2011·Chemical Reviews·Matthew R JonesChad A Mirkin
Mar 1, 2013·Dalton Transactions : an International Journal of Inorganic Chemistry·Johannes NoackErhard Kemnitz
Jun 13, 2017·Chemical Reviews·Fan HongHao Yan
Dec 8, 2019·Nature Communications·Loukia G KaracostaSylvia K Plevritis

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
scanning
X-ray
transmission electron microscopy
surface plasmon resonance
surface-enhanced Raman scattering
chemical

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