The synthesis of controlled shape nanoplasmonic silver-silica structures by combining sol-gel technique and direct silver reduction.

In this work, we have obtained nanoplasmonic silver structures deposited on the glass substrates by combining sol-gel technology and direct silver ion reduction on the film surfaces. The key point of the work was the usage of polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG 400) both as the pore former and reducing agent for silver ions. We have investigated the influence of PEG 400 amount on the formation of silver nanoparticles on the film surface. It was found that control of PEG 400 amount in the sols allows the creation of porous films with specific organized silver nanoparticles or clusters on the surface. Optical, morphological and structural characteristics of the structures were measured and studied. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used for nanostructure size and shape characterization. We were able to form a 40- to 200-nm-diameter ring-type, spherical and self-assembled nanoparticles on the film surface. The results of UV-vis absorbance spectra have shown the high quality of plasmonic structures with plasmon resonance wavelength in the region between 470 and 480 nm. The synthesized silica films decorated with silver nanoparticles were tested as substrates for the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and showed an enhancement relative to micro-Raman of more than 200 times.