Highly ordered Au-decorated Ag nanorod arrays as an ultrasensitive and reusable substrate for surface enhanced Raman scattering

For surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates, complexity of the fabrication process, sensitivity and stability are factors that need to be considered. We report a simple and novel method for preparing an effective substrate that greatly enhances SERS signals. The SERS substrate is fabricated by selectively electroless deposition of Ag nanoparticles in the highly ordered porous anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) template and then etching it to form Ag nanorod bundles structure, so that the Raman enhancement occurs in the gap between the nanorods and the top of the nanorod bundle, which is verified by finite element analysis . A peculiarity of this method is that this is the first time to synthesize Ag nanorod arrays structure by using it. The results indicated that this prepared substrate has special micro-nano structure and when rhodamine 6 G is selected as the detection reagent, the detection limit is as low as 10 −16 M with excellent recyclability. This outstanding array structure has a promising practical application in SERS field.