Chemically attached gold nanoparticle-carbon nanotube hybrids for highly sensitive SERS substrate

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has been shown as one of the most powerful analytical tool with high sensitivity. In this manuscript, we report the chemical design of SERS substrate, based on gold nanoparticles of different shapes-decorated with carbon nanotube with an enhancement factor of 7.5 x 10(10). Shape dependent result shows that popcorn shape gold nanoparticle decorated SWCNT is the best choice for SERS substrate due to the existence of `'lightning rod effect' through several sharp edges or corners. Our results provide a good approach to develop highly sensitive SERS substrates and can help to improve the fundamental understanding of SERS phenomena. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.