Bimetallic nanocobs: Decorating silver nanowires with gold nanoparticles

Hybrid bimetallic nanocobs, comprising a silver nanowire core surrounded by a gold nanoparticle shell linked together by a star polymer with terminal functional groups, revealed a greatly enhanced SERS ability. The SERS enhancement exceeded Raman scattering from isolated silver nanowires by about two orders Of magnitude. Effective plasmon excitation provides a broad absorption band for SERS activation, which is also directionally dependent, making the nanocobs promising candidates for arrayed microstructures.