Electrochemical SERS at a structured gold surface

Abstract

Templated electrodeposition of gold to produce thin (<1 lm) films containing a close packed hexagonal array of uniform sphere segment voids is shown to give surfaces which show strong surface enhancement for Raman scattering from molecules adsorbed at the surface. The magnitude of this is enhancement is determined by the precise geometry of the surface and depends on the choice of void diameter and film thickness. The resulting SER active surfaces are stable, reusable, give reproducible surface enhancement and can be used for in situ electrochemical SERS studies.

Surface enhanced raman scattering of aromatic thiols adsorbed on nanostructured gold surfaces

“…Moreover, the nanostructured gold substrate reported in this paper is very stable and can be used several times provided it is subjected to cleaning before use. The chemical and electrochemical stability of the substrates make it a very good candidate for the electrochemical SERS applications [39].…”

Breaking the mould: Casting on the nanometre scale

“…Th e commercial potential has recently been shown for sensor applications of nanotemplated gold fi lms (structured as in Fig. 1d) as amplifying substrates for the surface-enhanced Raman scattering of molecules attached to them [2][3][4][5][6] . Such fabrication exemplifi es the cost benefi ts of nanotemplating: substrates can be produced at a thousandth of the price of top-down fabrication approaches.…”

Electrodeposition of highly ordered macroporous iridium oxide through self-assembled colloidal templates

“…Further cycling yields porous films up to 3 template layers thick with a 3D 30 honeycomb internal structure. Upon characterisation with XRay diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, SEM, voltammetry, and reflectivity measurements, the films are found to be amorphous, to have structural dimensions faithful to that of the template, several electroactive redox states and reflectivity 35 spectra significantly different from that of non-structured films. Such films should find applications in biology (IrOx is conducting, non reactive and biocompatible) but particularly optics because their optical density can be electrochemically controlled and the cavity diameters correspond to UV-visible 40 wavelengths.…”