SERS active systems of water-soluble polythiophene and plasmonic nanoparticles: preparation and optical properties

Aggregated systems of silver (Ag) and gold (Au) nanoparticles coated with cationic polythiophene were prepared, which showed optical properties typical for strongly coupled plasmonic excitations. The procedure allowed tune up the three-dimensional arrangement of nanoparticles assembly for achieving strong SERS effect at the excitation wavelength depending on the polymer concentration. By combination with an anionic derivative of polythiophene thin multilayer films composed of alternating anionic and cationic polythiophene with mutually interacting plasmonic Au nanoparticles were successfully prepared using layer-by-layer deposition.