Bimetallic silver-gold nanowires: fabrication and use in surface-enhanced Raman scattering

Silver nanowires, made in an aqueous chemical reduction process, can be reacted with gold salt to create bimetallic nanowires. Treatment of the bimetallic products with aqueous ammonia selectively reacts with silver to yield gold nanotubes. Materials were characterized by electron microscopy and UV- visible spectroscopy, and they were evaluated for their ability to promote surface- enhanced Raman scattering of a model analyte.