Large-scale controlled fabrication of highly roughened flower-like silver nanostructures in liquid crystalline phase

Large-scale controllable fabrication of highly roughened flower-like silver nanostructures is demonstrated experimentally via electrodeposition in the liquid crystalline phase. Different sizes of silver flowers are fabricated by adjusting the deposition time and the concentration of the silver nitrate solution. The density of the silver flowers in the sample is also controllable in this work. The flower-like silver nanostructures can serve as effective surface-enhanced Raman scattering and surface-enhanced fluorescence substrates because of their local surface plasmon resonance, and they may have applications in photoluminescence and catalysis. This liquid crystalline phase is used as a soft template for fabricating flower-like silver nanostructures for the first time, and this approach is suitable for large-scale uniform fabrication up to several centimetres.