title: Ostwald-ripening-induced growth of parallel face-exposed Ag nanoplates on micro-hemispheres for high SERS activity.
abstract: Ag nanoplates, as two-dimensional plasmonic nanostructures, have attracted intensive attention due to their strong shape-dependent optical properties and related applications. Here parallel face-exposed Ag nanoplates vertically grown on micro-hemisphere surfaces have been achieved by firstly electrodepositing the micro-hemispheres assembled by Ag nanoplates, whose planar surfaces are stuck together, on indium tin oxide substrates, and then Ostwald ripening the as-electrodeposited micro-hemispheres in water. The sizes of the nanoplates and the gaps between the neighboring nanoplates have been tailored by tuning the Ostwald-ripening duration, so that the SERS activity of the micro-hemispheres has been remarkably improved. The improved SERS activity can be well explained by our systematic finite-element simulation. Therefore, Ostwald ripening offers a route to the synthesis of Ag nanoplates, and the optimization of plasmon coupling and SERS activity of nanostructure-assembled systems.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Chuhong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Guowen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Haibin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Yiwu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xiujuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: Ostwald ripening; nanoplates; nanostructures; self-assembly; silver