Porous Au/γ-AlOOH Nanoflowers for Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Detection of Aromatic Acid Compounds

Abstract

γ-AlOOH with abundant dangling hydroxyl groups and plasmonic Au catalyst was used to synthesize porous Au/γ-AlOOH nanoflowers. Synergistic electromagnetic field mechanism (EM) and efficient charge transfer (CT) could be expected to be achieved by the Au and γ-AlOOH nanocomposites to provide a higher concentration of Lewis-type basic sites for the monodentate coordination of aromatic acid compounds and highly sensitive detection via surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy. This material had excellent conductivity, reducing electron and hole recombination and accelerating charge transport, improving charge utilization, and exhibited remarkable stability as well as repeatability as a SERS substrate. This strategy is expected to be recognized as a nanostructured catalyst used for organic aromatic molecules with no steric hindrance in bidentate coordination with the most effective chemical enhancement mechanism (CM) effect.