Electrochemical deposition of silver nanoparticles in multiwalled carbon nanotube-alumina-coated silica for surface-enhanced Raman scattering-active substrates

The work presents a novel surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-active surface prepared by electrochemical deposition of silver nanoparticles in multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)-alumina-coated silica (ACS) nanocomposite. The formation of Ag nanoparticles in MWCNT-ACS nanocomposite was investigated by scanning electron microscopy. It shows that Ag nanoparticles with a diameter of about 100-200 nm in the MWCNT-ACS nanocomposite and some Ag nanoparticles aggregated to form interconnected aggregates. The Ag-MWCNT-ACS-coated indium tin oxide substrate has a considerable effect on the Raman spectra with improvements of more than four times of magnitude as compared with the Ag-coated indium tin oxide substrate. The present methodology demonstrates that the composite composed of Ag, MWCNT, and ACS is suitable for potential plasmonic devices. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.