Print Email Facebook Twitter Aerosol Direct Writing and Thermal Tuning of Copper Nanoparticle Patterns as Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Sensors Title Aerosol Direct Writing and Thermal Tuning of Copper Nanoparticle Patterns as Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Sensors Author Aghajani, S. (TU Delft Micro and Nano Engineering) Accardo, A. (TU Delft Micro and Nano Engineering) Tichem, M. (TU Delft Micro and Nano Engineering) Date 2020 Abstract Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates are of great interest for detecting low-concentrated analytes. However, issues such as multistep processing, cost, and possible presence of hazardous substances in the fabrication still represent a significant drawback. In this paper, an innovative direct writing method is introduced for solvent-free and spatially selective deposition of fine metal copper nanoparticles (CuNPs), with size distribution below 20 nm, generated in-line through a spark ablation method (SAM). The deposited CuNPs' morphology and composition were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The resulting CuNP patterns feature porous 3D microdomains with nanometric structures serving as hot spots for Raman signal enhancement. Low-temperature post-treatment (below 200 °C) of the deposited CuNPs significantly evolves its morphology and leads to sintering of NPs into a semicrystalline structure with sharp geometric features, which resulted in a more than 10-fold increase of the enhancement factor (up to 2.1 × 105) compared to non-heat-treated samples. The proposed method allows creating SERS substrates constituted by sharp 3D metallic nanopatterns selectively deposited onto specific regions, which paves the way for new printed, highly sensitive SERS-based sensors. Subject aerosol direct writingcopper nanoparticlespark ablation method (SAM)surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)thermal treatment To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:03ec8573-daeb-492f-8fb2-eb542010b9ea DOI https://doi.org/10.1021/acsanm.0c00887 ISSN 2574-0970 Source ACS Applied Nano Materials, 3 (6), 5665-5675 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2020 S. Aghajani, A. Accardo, M. Tichem Files PDF acsanm.0c00887.pdf 2.65 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:03ec8573-daeb-492f-8fb2-eb542010b9ea/datastream/OBJ/view