One Step Fabrication of Highly Absorptive and Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) Silver Nano-trees on Silicon Substrate

Silver Nano-trees (AgNTs) were synthesized by one-step electroless method with different densities via water or ethylene glycol (EG) on silicon substrate in one minute. The density of AgNTs is controlled by changing the concentration of silver nitrate in etchant solution. The absorption of NTs fabricated via EG is higher than absorption of NTs without EG. The AgNTs are employed as substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and exhibit high sensitivity. The silver Nano-trees fabricated via ethylene glycol (AgNTs-EG) enhances the Raman spectrum of pyridine (Py) with higher enhancement factor. Moreover, the SERS-active substrates prepared by using EG were able to detect Pyridine with concentration as low as 0.005 mM, the ones fabricated by water could only detect Pyridine at concentration of 0.2 mM.