Detection of nitro explosives via LSPR sensitive silver clusters embedded in porous silica

LSPR sensitive silver clusters embedded in porous silica, which show high LSPR sensitivity to both nitroaromatic and nitroaliphatic explosives, are prepared by a reverse microemulsion. The performance of this hybrid nanostructure is due to the combination of accumulation of nitro explosives in the porous silica and the interaction of the silver clusters with nitro explosives. This results in highly sensitive and selective sensing of nitro explosives via the changes of the LSPR extinction intensity of the embedded silver clusters, with sensitivity down to at least 1 mu M concentrations.