Electrochemical growth of silver nanodendrites on aluminum and their application as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates

Abstract In present work, we report a very fast, reproducible, and simple fabrication method for obtaining silver nanodendrites supported on aluminum sheets by electrodeposition, at 3 and 5 V during 10 s, and their use as SERS substrates. These nanostructures were characterized by FE-SEM, TEM, GIXRD, XPS and UV-Vis. The SERS substrates were tested using rhodamine 6G as analyte in concentrations as low as 1 μM showing a good reproducibility on all the point of analysis using different substrates fabricated at the same conditions, proving the reproducibility not only of the analysis but also of the manufacturing method without the use of surfactants, seeds or templates. The SERS substrates present analytical enhancement factors between 103-104, which are enough to detect analytes at concentrations below 1 ppm.