Considerable research efforts have been devoted to surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), due to its excellent performance in biosensing and imaging. Here, a novel and facile strategy for the fabrication of well-defined and uniform nanodimers as SERS substrates is presented. By the assistance of ultrasound, the violent polyol process for particle generation becomes controllable, enabling the self-assembly of nanostars to nanodimers. Moreover, the aggregation of nanodimers can be easily tuned by post-ultrasonic treatment, which gives a sensitive substrate for SERS.
Keywords: aggregation; nanodimers; self-assembly; surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy; ultrasonic-assisted synthesis.
© 2019 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.