An atom-induced situ-growth method for constructing a highly sensitive and reproducible large area SERS substrate

Abstract

In this work an easy, low-cost, feasible chemical fabrication method was introduced to achieve an effective and reproducible SERS substrate where silver nanoparticles (NPs) grew uniformly and densely on the surface of silicon wafer with the aid of silver atoms. The fabrication method included the silanization of silicon wafer, and absorption of Ag+ ions, silver atoms formation and silver NPs growth on silicon wafer. After optimizing the process, the as-obtained silver NPs substrate exhibited a surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) enhancement factor of 108 when rhodamine 6G (R6G) was used as probe molecule and an excellent reproducibility with the relative standard deviation (RSD) as 6.5% calculated by 144 data over 12 μm × 12 μm mapping area. This substrate with easy preparation and high efficiency has a potential practical application in SERS field.