The fabrication of high-performance plasmonic nanomaterials for bio-sensing and trace chemical detection is a field of intense theoretical and experimental research. The use of metal-silicon nanopillar arrays as analytical sensors has been reported with reasonable results in recent years. The use of bio-inspired nanocomposite structures that follow the Fibonacci numerical architecture offers the opportunity to develop nanostructures with theoretically higher and more reproducible plasmonic fields over extended areas. The work presented here describes the nanofabrication process for a series of 40 µm × 40 µm bio-inspired arrays classified as asymmetric fractals (sunflower seeds and romanesco broccoli), bilaterally symmetric (acacia leaves and honeycombs), and radially symmetric (such as orchids and lily flowers) using electron beam lithography. In addition, analytical capabilities were evaluated using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The substrate characterization and SERS performance of the developed substrates as the strategies to assess the design performance are presented and discussed.
The strategy and technique exploited in the synthesis of nanostructure materials have an explicit effect on the nucleation, growth, and properties of product materials. Nanoparticles of zinc sulfide (ZnS) have been synthesized by new infrared radiation (IR) assisted and Stokes' law based controlled bottom-up approach without using any capping agent and stirring. IR has been used for heating the reaction surface designed in accordance with the well-known Stokes law for a free body falling in a quiescent fluid for the synthesis of ZnS nanoparticles. The desired concentration of aqueous solutions of zinc nitrate (Zn(NO 3 ) 2 ⋅4H 2 O) and thioacetamide (CH 3 CSNH 2 ) was reacted in a controlled manner by IR radiation heating at the reaction area (top layer of reactants solution) of the solution which results in the formation of ZnS nanoparticles at ambient conditions following Stokes' law for a free body falling in a quiescent fluid. The phase, crystal structure, and particle size of as-synthesized nanoparticles were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The optical properties of as-synthesized ZnS nanoparticles were studied by means of optical absorption spectroscopic measurements. The optical energy band gap and the nature of transition have been studied using the well-known Tauc relation with the help of absorption spectra of as-synthesized ZnS nanoparticles.
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