[Fabrication of two dimensional silver cavity array and its application in SERS detection]

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Electrochemistry

Context:

• Fabrication of ordered micro/nano-sized structures is crucial for advanced optical and sensing applications.
• Polystyrene sphere templates offer a scalable method for creating highly ordered nanostructures.
• Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) requires substrates with specific electromagnetic field enhancements.

Purpose:

• To develop a novel two-dimensional silver cavity array using a galvanostatic multistep method.
• To investigate the morphology and surface plasmon resonance properties of the fabricated silver cavities.
• To evaluate the performance of the silver cavity array as a substrate for SERS detection of p-aminothiophenol (PATP) and Rhodamine 6G (R6G).

Summary:

• Ordered arrays of 700 nm polystyrene spheres were used as templates to fabricate two-dimensional micro/nano-sized silver cavities via a galvanostatic multistep method.
• The cavity depth was tunable by adjusting electrochemical deposition parameters, influencing morphology and surface plasmon resonance.
• The silver cavity arrays demonstrated excellent SERS performance for PATP detection with enhancement factors up to 10^7 and high reproducibility (RSD of 8.4%).

Impact:

• The developed silver cavity arrays serve as highly sensitive and reproducible SERS substrates.
• Enables quantitative detection of analytes like Rhodamine 6G down to 0.1 ng/mL.
• Paves the way for advanced sensing technologies in chemical and biological analysis.