title: Improved stabilities on surface-enhanced Raman scattering-active Ag/Al2O3 films on substrates.
abstract: As is shown in the literature, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-active Ag films obtained by the salting-out of Ag colloids from solutions with some salts, are popularly used to examine the structure of analytes. SERS-active Ag nanoparticles (NPs) demonstrate more significant SERS effects than Au NPs, however, problems regarding the stabilities of SERS-active Ag NPs remain to be overcome. In this work, Ag/Al(2)O(3) colloids were prepared in 0.1 M HNO(3) solutions containing Al(2)O(3) NPs with higher heat capacity by sonoelectrochemical methods. SERS-active Ag/Al(2)O(3) films deposited on glass slides were prepared by the addition of a saturated NaCl solution in the prepared Ag/Al(2)O(3) colloids-containing solution. In an acceptable sacrifice of Raman intensity by ca. 30% magnitude, the prepared Ag/Al(2)O(3) films markedly improved thermal stability by raising the operation temperature over 100 °C, compared to Ag films. Meanwhile, aging of SERS enhancement capability in an atmosphere of relative humidity (RH) of 50% and 20% (v/v) O(2) at 30 °C is significantly depressed using Ag/Al(2)O(3) films.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, No. 250, Wu-Hsing St, Taipei 11031, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Fu-Der
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Mai
authors.forename: Kuang-Hsuan
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Yu-Chuan
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ting-Chu
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Hsu
mesh_terms: D000537:Aluminum Oxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry*; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000379:methods*; D013499:Surface Properties; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D012834:Silver; D000537:Aluminum Oxide