Chimie douce preparation of reproducible silver coatings for SERS applications

A new soft chemistry preparation method of submicron — thick porous coatings of metallic silver is suggested for possible surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) applications. The method is based on facile deposition of diamminesilver (I) aerosols forming instantly a nanostructured layer by fast decomposition and self–reduction of [Ag(NH3)2]+ aqueous solutions onto surfaces of inorganic substrates under mild conditions of 280–300∘C in air. A strong difference in overall microstructures and related SERS signals of model analytes is found for substrates with different deposition time and in comparison with a standard magnetron deposition technique. It is demonstrated that the suggested method is predominant for formation of robust SERS substrates with a stable and reproducible SERS enhancement.