In-situ deposition of silver nanoparticles on silver nanoflowers for ultrasensitive and simultaneous SERS detection of organic pollutants

Abstract Recently, a great deal of research has been stepped forward to implement real-time detection of multiple targets using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Herein, a novel incorporation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on silver nanoflowers (AgNFs) via the in-situ process offers high SERS enhancement by its unique plasmonic resonance. The electromagnetic mechanism of AgNFs incorporated with AgNPs generates numerous hotspots from abundant nanogaps on nanoflowers and between nanoparticles for ultrasensitive detection of probe molecules. The increment in the SERS signal is demonstrated by depositing the probe molecules, rhodamine 6G (R6G) and Congo Red (CR), on the proposed nanostructure. The proposed AgNF@AgNP nanostructure provides stronger SERS activity than the individual AgNPs and Ag NFs, and possesses superior detection ability towards R6G (10-14 M) and CR (10-9 M) with excellent uniformity (