Shell Thickness-Dependent Plasmon Coupling and Creation of SERS Hot Spots in Au@Ag Core-Shell Nanostructures

The main objective of the present study is to investigate the shell thickness-dependent Raman enhancement activity of silver-coated gold nanoparticles (Au@Ag NPs) when bound to a model analyte 2-mercaptobenzoic acid (2-MBA). With an optimized Ag:Au ratio, dimeric and trimeric Au@Ag nanostructures were prepared in the presence of 2-MBA and are characterized by spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. These dimeric junctions act as hot spots and the molecules trapped at these junctions showed higher Raman signal enhancements due to the presence of amplified electric field.