Published 2018-01-01
Abstract
Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) is attributed primarily to the enhancement of the incident and scatteredelectromagnetic fields near metal surfaces through excitation of localized surface plasmons. This condition requirespositioning the reporting molecule within special sites in nanostructured metal surfaces (hot spots) where the enhancement isgreatest. A readily available and reliable hot spot is found in the junction between two metal NPs. In this sense, our current workhasengineered a successful nanostructured tool for developing sensory materials that incorporate important improvementsin SERS-tags sensitivity (femtoMolardetection level) by properly managing the interaction between Ag-nanoparticles withinnanoassemblies; making dimer-like nanostructures ideal in a wide range of tagging, sensing, and analysis applications.