Novel Strategy for One-Pot Synthesis of Gold Nanoplates on Carbon Nanotube Sheet As an Effective Flexible SERS Substrate

Wenbo Xin; Jenn-Ming Yang; Chao Li; Mark S Goorsky; Larry Carlson; Igor M De Rosa

doi:10.1021/acsami.6b10560

Novel Strategy for One-Pot Synthesis of Gold Nanoplates on Carbon Nanotube Sheet As an Effective Flexible SERS Substrate

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Feb 22;9(7):6246-6254. doi: 10.1021/acsami.6b10560. Epub 2017 Feb 7.

Authors

Wenbo Xin¹, Jenn-Ming Yang¹, Chao Li¹, Mark S Goorsky¹, Larry Carlson², Igor M De Rosa^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles , 410 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
² Institute for Technology Advancement, University of California, Los Angeles , 410 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.

PMID: 28106364
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b10560

Abstract

In this work, we demonstrate a novel route for one-pot synthesis of two-dimensional gold nanoplates (2-D AuNPLs) on carbon nanotube (CNT) sheet. Well-defined AuNPLs are grafted onto CNT sheet via a facile hydrothermal reduction process, during which bromine ions are employed as the surfactant for gold anisotropic growth. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) shows large-scale AuNPLs with micrometer-scaled length and sub-100 nm thickness are deposited uniformly on the CNT sheet. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results confirm the synthesized AuNPLs are single-crystalline with preferential {111} orientation. Based on the CNT sheet/AuNPLs hybrid, we have fabricated a flexible surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate, which can effectively detect the analyte Rhodamine 6G (Rh6G) at the concentration as low as 1 × 10^-7 M. The excellent SERS performance of this novel flexible substrate is mainly attributed to nanoscaled gaps between the neighbors, large surface area with roughness, and their sharp edges and corners.

Keywords: carbon nanotube sheet; flexible SERS substrate; gold nanoplates; one-pot synthesis.