High-performance 3D flexible SERS substrate based on graphene oxide/silver nanoparticles/pyramid PMMA

Colloidal plasmonic metal nanoparticles are capable of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for various analytical fields. Despite steady efforts to establish hot spots and obtain optimal SERS signals, it remains a challenge to ensure the accessibility and high density for enhancing Raman activity. Here, pyramid silicon was utilized as a template to fabricate the graphene oxide (GO)/silver nanoparticles (AgNPs)/pyramid polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) three-dimension (3D) flexible structure. Micrographs displayed the hybrid structure inherited the periodic 3D nanostructure with the pyramid microstructure, and the results exhibited that the proposed substrate possesses superior SERS performance with high sensitivity, homogeneity and stability. The enhancement factor reached up to 8.1 x 10(9) using rhodamine 6G as the probe molecules. Besides, the in situ detection of the malachite green (MG) on the shrimp's surface was carried out to achieve and detect surface analytes. This work can provide a novel assembled SERS substrate as SERS-based biological detection in practical applications. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement