title: Controlled growth of polyhedral and plate-like Ag nanocrystals on a nanofiber mat as a SERS substrate.
abstract: We report chemical deposition of silver nanocrystals (AgNCs) of different sizes and morphologies, such as polyhedra and plates, on a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber mat. High performance surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates are achieved. The effect of the experimental parameters, such as the temperature, concentration and pH of [Ag(NH3)2]OH aqueous solution, on the morphology evolution and density of AgNCs is systematically investigated. The results suggest that the optimized nanofiber mat exhibits a significant SERS performance with superior stability and reproduction, and the SERS enhancement factor (EF) can reach as high as 10(8) for 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (4-MBA). The optimized nanofiber mat also shows high SERS activity for p-aminothiophenol (4-ATP) over the whole nanofiber mat demonstrating the feasibility for detection of both analytes. The detection limit of 4-MBA and 4-ATP is as low as 10(-9) M and 10(-10) M respectively, making the nanofiber mat a promising candidate for SERS detection of chemical pollutants.
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of carbon fiber and functional polymers, Ministry of Education, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China. pankai@mail.buct.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Yuxuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Junhu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: An
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pan