Tuning the surface enhanced Raman scattering activity of gold nanocubes by silver coating

Colloidal gold nanocubes coated with a silver nanoshell have been synthesized via the seed mediated growth method. By changing the volume of gold seed and silver nitrate, both the edge length of gold nanocube and the thickness of silver shell could be fine-tuned. The surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity of these core-shell structural Au-Ag bimetallic nanocubes has also been investigated by using the rhodamine 6G (R6G) as Raman active probe. It has been found the SERS activity of the silver-coated gold nanocubes greatly depends on their geometry factors. By decreasing the edge length of gold nanocubes or increasing the silver coating thickness, the SERS activity has been greatly enhanced. By comparing with other Raman bands of R6G, the enhancement of the Raman peak corresponding to the C-C-C ring in-plane vibration mode is more sensitive to the geometries of the nanostructure. These improved SERS properties of silver-coated gold nanocubes provide potential application for biologic and chemical sensing based on Raman spectroanalysis.