Facile synthesis of multi-branched AgPt alloyed nanoflowers and their excellent applications in surface enhanced Raman scattering

Abstract With the purpose to search novel surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates, uniform multi-branched AgPt alloyed dendritic nanoflowers (AgPt DNFs) are fabricated with the assistance of 3-aminopyrazine-2-carboxylic acid (Apzc) as a structure-director via a one-pot successive aqueous co-reduction strategy. The formation mechanism of AgPt DNFs is investigated in details. Their morphology, structure, size, and composition are confirmed by a series of characterization technique. The hierarchical nanostructures exhibit strong SERS enhancement and excellent stability by using 4-nitrothiophenolate (4-NTP) as a typical Raman probe. The improved SERS performance for 4-NTP is mainly attributed to the synergistic effects between the bimetals, together with the enriched hot spots at the sharp corners and/or edges of the architectures. This synthetic strategy provided a facile and environment-friendly method to prepare other metallic architectures with novel properties.