Preparation of a silver nano-tripod structure by a tilting angle deposition technique and its SERS application

A silver nano-tripod (AgNT) structure with a high-density “hot spots” distribution was fabricated by a tilting angle deposition technique. The electric field simulation distribution showed that the electric field enhancement of the AgNT structures is optimal when the tilting angle is 72°. Such AgNT substrates were successfully obtained experimentally when the included angle between the silver vapor and the normal of the sample platform was set to 86°. R6G and CV were used as probe molecules to investigate the SERS activity of AgNT, which revealed that the detection limits of AgNT for R6G and CV were 2.24×10−8 M and 4.01×10−8 M, the relative standard deviations (RSDs) were 4.26% and 4.44%, and the enhancement factors (EFs) were 9.58×106 and 1.16×107, respectively. The AgNT substrates with simple preparation and high distribution density of “hot spots” illustrate a good application prospect in environmental monitoring.