Self-Assembly of Au-Ag Alloy Hollow Nanochains for Enhanced Plasmon-Driven Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering

In this paper, Au-Ag alloy hollow nanochains (HNCs) were successfully prepared by a template-free self-assembly method achieved by partial substitution of ligands. The obtained Au-Ag alloy HNCs exhibit stronger enhancement as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates than Au-Ag alloy hollow nanoparticles (HNPs) and Au nanochains substrates with an intensity ratio of about 1.3:1:1. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations show that the SERS enhancement of Au-Ag alloy HNCs substrates is produced by a synergistic effect between the plasmon hybridization effect associated with the unique alloy hollow structure and the strong hot spot in the interstitial regions of the nanochains.

Automated summary

In this paper, Au-Ag alloy hollow nanochains (HNCs) were successfully prepared by a template-free self-assembly method achieved by partial substitution of ligands. The obtained Au-Ag alloy HNCs show stronger surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) effect than Au-Ag alloy hollow nanoparticles (HNPs) and Au nanochains substrates, due to the synergistic effect between the plasmon hybridization effect associated with the unique alloy hollow structure and the strong hot spot in the interstitial regions of the nanochains.