An effective surface-enhanced Raman scattering template based on gold nanoparticle/silicon nanowire arrays

A large-scale Si nanowire array (SiNWA) is fabricated with gold (Au) nanoparticles by simple metal-assisted chemical etching and metal reduction processes. The three-dimensional nanostructured Au/SiNWA is evaluated as an active substrate for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The results show that the detection limit for rhodamine 6G is as low as 10^-7 M, and the Raman enhancement factor is as large as 10⁵ with a relative standard deviation of less than 25%. After the calibration of the Raman peak intensities of rhodamine 6G and thiram, organic molecules could be quantitatively detected. These results indicate that Au/SiNWA is a promising SERS-active substrate for the detection of biomolecules present in low concentrations. Our findings are an important advance in SERS substrates to allow fast and quantitative detection of trace organic contaminants.