Porous POM/PLLA membranes decorated with gold nanoparticles as flexible and efficient plasmonic substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering

In this work, we have developed a flexible and efficient Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate by a facile way of fabricating gold nanoparticles (NPs) decorated Poly(oxymethylene)/poly(L-lactic acid) (POM/PLLA) membranes. Firstly, POM/PLLA membranes were aminolyzed by 1,6-hexanediamine to render the membranes with amino groups and porous structure simultaneously. The membranes were then immersed in tetrachloroauric acid (H4AuCl4) solution, where the AuCl4- anions were able to complex with the free amine groups of POM/PLLA, followed by in situ reduction by sodium borohydride to immobilize Au NPs on POM/PLLA membranes. The POM/PLLA/Au membranes exhibited high SERS sensitivity as well as good Raman signal reproductivity for rhodamine 6G (R6G). The minimum detection concentration was 10(-14) M and the enhancement factor was calculated to be 1.54 x 10(9).