Surface enhanced Raman scattering-active worm-like Ag clusters for sensitive and selective detection of dopamine

Herein, we have reported worm-like silver (Ag) clusters deposited on glass substrate via radio frequency sputtering for surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection of dopamine (DA) in the presence of excess ascorbic acid (AA) and uric acid (UA). The SERS enhancement was optimized by tuning the cluster size and film thickness of Ag by controlling sputtering parameters like time, pressure and power. The selectivity of the optimized Ag thin film for DA detection was studied by adding 100-fold excess of AA and UA. The limit of detection for optimized Ag film was calculated to be 8.3 x 10(-9) M at a signal to noise ratio (S/N) of similar to 3. The enhancement factor was estimated to be of the order of 10(7).