Two- and Three-Dimensional Ag-Au Nanoalloying: Heterogeneous Building Blocks Enhancing Near-Field Focusing

In this study, we report a strategy for fabricating binary surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates composed of plasmonic Pt@Ag and Pt@Au truncated-octahedral (TOh) dual-rim nanoframes (DNFs) functioning as a "nanoalloy." Pt TOh frameworks act as a scaffold to develop nanoarchitectures with surface decoration using plasmonically active materials (i.e., Au or Ag), resulting in identical sizes and shapes for the two distinct plasmonic elements, facilitating the fabrication of a "nanoalloy" blend of two shape-complex building blocks. The structural complexity from the dual-rim on (111) facets, combined with the mirror charge effect (i.e., enhanced polarization between Ag and Au) at the interface of heterogeneous components, significantly amplifies SERS activity. We carefully investigated near-field focusing of binary SERS substrates through single-particle and bulk SERS measurements corroborated by finite element method (FEM) calculations. Crucially, we developed free-standing superpowders (SPs) in which each heterogeneous building block formed micron-sized supercrystals with adjustable component ratios. These plasmonic SPs were applied to contaminated areas for analyte detection, demonstrating their potential for practical SERS applications.