Facile Fabrication of Large-Scale Porous and Flexible Three-Dimensional Plasmonic Networks

Assembling metallic nanoparticles and trapping target molecules within the probe volume of the incident light are important in plasmonic detection. Porous solid structures with three-dimensionally integrated metal nanoparticles would be very beneficial in achieving these objectives. Currently, porous inorganic oxides are being prepared under stringent conditions and further subjected to either physical or chemical attachment of metal nanoparticles. In this study, we propose a facile method to fabricate large-scale porous and flexible three-dimensional (3D) plasmonic networks. Initially, uncured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), in which metal ions are dissolved, diffuses spontaneously into the simple sugar crystal template via capillary action. As PDMS is cured, metal ions are automatically reduced to form a dense array of metal nanoparticles. After curing, the sugar template is easily removed by water treatment to obtain porous 3D plasmonic networks. We controlled the far-field scattering and near-field enhancement of the network by changing either the metal ion precursor or its concentration. To demonstrate the key advantages of our 3D plasmonic networks, such as simple fabrication, optical signal enhancement, and molecular trapping, we conducted sensitive Raman detection of several important molecules, including adenine, humidifier disinfectants, and volatile organic compounds.