Silver nanoflowers for single-particle SERS with 10 pM sensitivity

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has received considerable attention as a noninvasive optical sensing technique with ultrahigh sensitivity. While numerous types of metallic particles have been actively investigated as SERS substrates, the development of new SERS agents with high sensitivity and their reliable characterization are still required. Here we report the preparation and characterization of flower-shaped silver (Ag) nanoparticles that exhibit high-sensitivity single-particle SERS performance. Ag nanoflowers (NFs) with bud sizes in the range 220-620 nm were synthesized by the wet synthesis method. The densely packed nanoscale petals with thicknesses in the range 9-22 nm exhibit a large number of hot spots that significantly enhance their plasmonic activity. A single Ag NF particle (530-620 nm) can detect as little as 10^-11 M 4-mercaptobenzoic acid, and thus provides a sensitivity three orders of SERS magnitude greater than that of a spherical Ag nanoparticle. The analytical enhancement factors for single Ag NF particles were found to be as high as 8.0 ×10⁹, providing unprecedented high SERS detectivity at the single particle level. Here we present an unambiguous and systematic assessment of the SERS performances of the Ag NFs and demonstrate that they provide highly sensitive sensing platforms by single SERS particle.