Surface-enhanced Raman scattering from surfactant-free 3D gold nanowire networks substrates

A useful method for the fabrication of three-dimensional gold nanowire networks based on the chemical reduction of HAuCl4 with trisodium citrate was presented. The coverage of the 3D gold nanowire networks was tunable by altering precursor concentration. The as-prepared 3D gold nanowire networks could be used as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates and examined by 4-aminothiophenol (4-ATP) as a probe molecules. Since the proposed strategy is simple, cost-effective and reproducible for the mass production of network-like gold films irrespective of the kinds of the underlying substrates, it is expected to play an important role in the development of surface plasmon-based analytical devices. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.