Search

Bimetallic nanostructures can provide distinct and improved physicochemical properties by the coupling effect of the two metal components, making them promising materials for a variety of applications. Herein, we report composition-selective fabrication of ordered intermetallic Au–Cu nanowires (NWs) by two-step chemical vapor transport method and their application to nano-electrocatalytic glucose detection. Ordered intermetallic Au3Cu and AuCu3 NWs are topotaxially fabricated by supplying Cu-containing chemicals to pre-synthesized single-crystalline Au NW arrays. The composition of fabricated Au–Cu NWs can be selected by changing the concentration of Cu-containing species. Interestingly, Au3Cu NW electrodes show unique electrocatalytic activity for glucose oxidation, allowing us to detect glucose without interference from ascorbic acid. Such interference-free detection of glucose is attributed to the synergistic effect, induced by incorporation of Cu in Au. We anticipate that Au3Cu NWs could show possibility as efficient nano-size electrochemical glucose sensors and the present fabrication method can be employed to fabricate valuable ordered intermetallic nanostructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multi-layer nanogap array composed of three linearly aligned gold nanogaps is fabricated for a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrate. The overall process for the proposed structure is simple and reliable with the use of a photolithography-free fabrication process, which includes only deposition and etching. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is employed to form a uniform and highly controllable nanogap array. The nanogap width, a crucial parameter in SERS, is determined by the sacrificial film thickness of CVD. Experiments on nanogap width and polarization angle dependence are carried out to characterize the fabricated multi-layer nanogap array as an SERS substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A controllable flower-like Au nanostructure array for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) was fabricated using the combined technique of the top-down approach of conventional photolithography and the bottom-up approach of electrodeposition. Au nanostructures with a mean roughness ranging from 5.1 to 49.6 nm were obtained by adjusting electrodeposition time from 2 to 60 min. The rougher Au nanostructure provides higher SERS enhancement, while the highest SERS intensity obtained with the Au nanostructure is 29 times stronger than the lowest intensity. The SERS spectra of brilliant cresyl blue (BCB), benzenethiol (BT), adenine and DNA were observed from the Au nanostructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]