Gold coated zinc oxide nanonecklaces as a SERS substrate

Faceted zinc oxide nanonecklace (ZnO NN) arrays were grown on r-plane sapphires along one direction (ZnO [0001] II sapphire [10-11] and ZnO (-12-10) II sapphire (01-12)) using chemical vapor deposition. After coated with 45 nm gold films and annealed at 250 degrees C for 30 seconds, the coated ZnO NNs exhibit satisfactory and stable surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) effects when tested with melamine and other chemicals. The limit of detection of melamine is 10(-5) mol/L and the analytical enhancement factor is 10(4), which is competitive to a commercial substrate. This study indicates that gold coated ZnO NN substrates have a great potential as SERS-active substrates in rapid detection of trace amount food contaminants such as melamine and other chemicals.