Highly sensitive characteristic of surface enhanced Raman scattering for CuO/Au core/shell nanowires substrate

In this paper, we report a facile process to fabricate CuO/Au core/shell nanowires, where CuO core and Au shell were prepared by thermal oxidation and sputtering, respectively. The as-prepared CuO/Au nanowires are highly sensitive surface-enhanced-Raman-scattering (SERS) substrates, which can detect methylene blue down to a very low concentration of 10(-13) M. The major advantages of SERS substrates based on CuO/Au core/shell nanowires compared with others SERS substrates are the high sensitivity, uniformity, and purity due to the absence of any organic surfactants in the synthesis process.

Automated summary

This study reports a facile process to fabricate CuO/Au core/shell nanowires, which show high sensitivity as SERS substrates capable of detecting methylene blue at concentrations as low as 10(-13) M. The major advantages of these SERS substrates are their sensitivity, uniformity, and purity without the presence of organic surfactants in the synthesis process.