title: Surface-enhanced Raman scattering activities of carbon nanotubes decorated with silver nanoparticles.
abstract: We synthesized a carbon nanotube (CNT) loaded with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) composite as an effective surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate via a low-cost, simple citrate reduction method. The hybrid materials were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectrophotometer and Raman spectroscopy. Rhodamine 6G (R6G) was used as the probe analyte. The experimental results indicated that the detection concentration level was down to 10(-14) M. Additionally, we discussed the uniformity by conducting SERS position mapping within an area of 5 μm × 5 μm; meanwhile, we performed time-course SERS mapping experiments to study the evaporation process of probe molecules of the prepared samples. Finally, we simulated the electromagnetic field distribution based on SEM images (obtained the ratio of surface area to the area of silver particles) by the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method.
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Technology & System, Education Ministry of China, Chongqing University, 400044, China. zhangjie@cqu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaolei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jiamin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Quan
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu