Figure 4 indicates that the products are both flower like except that the rods are more coarse and larger in transverse dimension. However, there is no HCP phase in both samples as displayed in Figure 3. This phenomenon can be interpreted that PVP as a kind of polymer surfactants has no effect on the oxidation product of CH2O. Contrarily,
SS or SDS can disturb the directing role of formic acid as both of them are ionic surfactants. Thus, formic acid is the essential factor in the existence of HCP phase. Figure 4 SEM images of the samples stabilized by ionic surfactants. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/AT9283.html SEM images of the samples stabilized by (A) SS and (B) SDS. Utilizing flower-like Ag nanostructures as SERS substrate, the Raman signal of R6G as low as 10−7 M can be recognized in Figure 5A when P600 and P800 were used. This is not the case for P200 and P400. Different samples have different amounts of hot spots which reside in two learn more types of areas, one is the high curvature surface in tips and sharp edges of rods, and the other is junctions or gaps between two or more closely spaced rods. Unlike P200 and P400, P600 is
rich in secondary branches growing from main branches. P800 resembles flower clusters with abundant rods, and the hot spots should be the richest [6]. We further use 4-ATP as Raman active probe because of its strong chemical affinity to Ag and the large SERS signal. Compared to the spectrum obtained in pure 4-ATP, the SERS spectrum exhibits some distinct frequency shifts as displayed in Figure 5B because the -SH group of 4-ATP directly
contacts with the Ag nanostructures surface by forming a strong Ag-S bond [32]. The bands at 1,592 and 1,078 cm−1 are attributed to the Org 27569 a1 modes of the 4-ATP molecule, and the bands at 1,434 and 1,142 cm−1 are assigned to the b2 modes [33]. As in the case of R6G as Raman active probe, the SERS intensity is maximum when P800 is used indicating that the electric field enhancement is the dominant factor for SERS in our samples. It is worthy to note than the Raman signal of 4-ATP as low as 10−7 M can be recognized in all the samples perhaps due to strong chemical affinity to Ag and the large SERS signal of 4-ATP compared to R6G molecules. Figure 5 SERS spectra and Raman Spectra of R6G and 4-ATP. SERS spectra of 10−7 M R6G (A) and 4-ATP (B) using flower-like Ag nanostructures as SERS substrates, and Raman spectra 10−2 M R6G and 4-ATP on bare silicon wafer are also presented for comparison. The different optimal parameters for SERS enhancement and HCP phase content indicate that the SERS enhancement factor has no direct relation with phase composition. As is well known, different crystal structures correspond to different spacial stacking of atoms. The HCP structure corresponds to the ABA sequence, whereas with FCC, the sequence is ABC [21]; thus, different crystal structures mean different carrier concentration and further plasma frequency [34].