title: Thermally activated Cu/Cu2S/ZnO nanoarchitectures with surface-plasmon-enhanced Raman scattering.
abstract: Hierarchical Cu/Cu2S/ZnO nanoarchitectures were fabricated via an electroplated ZnO nanorod array in the first step, followed by the growth of Cu2S nanostructures for the application of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection. The Cu/Cu2S nanostructures as grown were thermally treated at 150-300°C under a nitrogen atmosphere to improve the crystalline quality, and, unexpectedly, to induce plasmonic Cu nanoshells on the surface of Cu2S. With 4-aminothiophenol (4-ATP) as probing molecules, SERS experiments showed that the thermally treated Cu/Cu2S/ZnO nanostructures exhibit excellent detection performance, so that they can serve as active and cost-effective SERS substrates for ultrasensitive detection. The enhancement is attributed to the coupling between Cu2S and plasmonic Cu, as confirmed by electromagnetic field simulations. This novel hierarchical substrate shows satisfactory reproducibility and a linear dependence of intensity on analyte concentration, revealing an advantage of this method for easily scaled production.
authors.affiliation: National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Hsinchu 30076, Taiwan. Electronic address: lin.yg@nsrrc.org.tw.
authors.forename: Yan-Gu
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Opto-Electronic Engineering, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien 97401, Taiwan. Electronic address: ykhsu@mail.ndhu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Yu-Kuei
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.affiliation: Department of Opto-Electronic Engineering, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien 97401, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chin-Jung
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.affiliation: National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Hsinchu 30076, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yu-Chang
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institutfür Anorganische Chemie, Engesserstraße 15, D-76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Ying-Chu
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chen
keywords: Copper; Copper(I) sulfide; Nanostructures; Surface-enhanced Raman scattering