Citric Acid Induced Synthesis of a Series of Morphology-Controllable Ag Microspheres and Their Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering

Abstract

A facile route has been used to synthesize a series of morphology-controllable 3D hierarchical Ag microspheres (AgMS) by using citric acid as a morphology directing-reagent. The AgMS are self-assembled by Ag nanosheets which can be controlled, including the thickness of the nanosheets and the distance between two nanosheets by varying the concentration of citric acid. The average thickness of the Ag nanosheets decreased from ~107 to ~22 nm with increasing citric acid concentration. The distance between two of Ag nanosheets is at a range of 15 to 35 nm. The SERS activity of the products has been investigated in detail by using rhodamine 6G (R6G). The results show that R6G can be detected in a concentration as low as 10–7 M. The appropriate interstitial sites of interlaced Ag nanosheets assembled on AgMS provide "hot spots" which result in a strong SERS response, and the electromagnetic enhancement may play the main role in SERS. The SERS activity of a sample has been studied by using melamine, and the limit of detection is found to be 0.6 ppm.