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Tunable Plasmonic Properties of Bimetallic Au-Cu Nanorods for SERS-Based Sensing Application

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Abstract

In this report, bimetallic Au-Cu nanorods were successfully prepared by a seed-mediated co-reduction strategy. Aspect ratio and corresponding plasmon wavelength of bimetallic nanoparticles can be tuned by changing the metal precursor ratio, gold seed solution or silver nitrate solution volumes used in the growth step. In the variation range of the current work, we found that the bimetallic Au-Cu rod aspect ratio increases with an increase of copper content, a decrease of gold seed and silver nitrate volumes. Using Nile blue A as a probe molecule, we investigated the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity of bimetallic Au-Cu nanorods and observed a significant improvement of SERS performance with an increase of the aspect ratios. These results suggest that a combination of unique features of two plasmonic metals promises potential applicability in many SERS-based analytical applications.

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Acknowledgement

This research is funded by the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam under Grant Number B2021-BKA-17. The authors would also like to thank Nippon Sheet Glass Foundation for Materials Science and Engineering for the support and Dr. Hyuk Su Han (Konkuk University) for the HAADF-STEM and EDX mapping measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, 1 Dai Co Viet Road, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Xiem Thi Van, Long Toan Trinh & Mai Thi Tuyet Nguyen

  2. Faculty of Physics, Hanoi National University of Education, 136 Xuan Thuy Street, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Hai Van Pham

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  1. Xiem Thi Van
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Correspondence to Mai Thi Tuyet Nguyen.

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Van, X.T., Trinh, L.T., Van Pham, H. et al. Tunable Plasmonic Properties of Bimetallic Au-Cu Nanorods for SERS-Based Sensing Application. J. Electron. Mater. 51, 1857–1865 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-022-09455-4

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