The goal of this research was to develop the best gold nanostructures for applications in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (SEIRA).  Various nanostructures were formed by evaporating gold in vacuum onto CaF2 substrates at deposition angles ranging from incident to 85�.  Nanostructures were characterized with AFM, SEM, and UV/Vis-NIR spectroscopy.  A monolayer of p-nitrobenzoic acid was deposited onto the gold nanostructures to determine the degree of vibrational enhancement in SEIRA, and a rhodamine-6G monolayer was used to ascertain the SERS enhancement.  SEIRA enhancement factors of x20-50 were obtained from metal nanostructures formed by the evaporation of 5-7 nm of gold at incident angle.  Gold nanorods aggregated during formation at grazing angles and did not yield larger enhancement factors.  This work will influence a range of biological, medical, catalytic, environmental, and nanotechnological applications.

Formation of gold nanoparticles and nanorods for applications in SERS and SEIRA

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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