What is the main difference between Gold and Silver nano particles in Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy? I read on wikipedia that Aluminum is also being explored as a potential SERS substrate. Can someone weigh the pros and cons of each of these chemicals as a substrate and tell the wavelength of their SERS effect?
Here is a brilliant paper that outlines some of the factors that influence both gold and silver nanoparticles' response:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17004772
The research group of Prof. Richard Van Duyne is also a good place to find information:
http://sites.northwestern.edu/vanduyne/publications/
I have also attached a paper by Herrera et al. that looks at the SERS response of both gold and silver nanoparticles:
Hope it helps.
the main differences lie in the stability, ease of preparation methods, binding affinity between NPs and ligands and in the plasmon resonance that the NPs offer. Silver often offers the higher enhancement factors which are, however, wavelength dependent. There is a vast literature on SERS with different substrates. As Jules said above, the most comprehensive work has been done by van Duyne and George Schatz. I would start with these two papers:
J. Phys. Chem. 1987, 91, 634-643
In addition to responses given above, the wavelength dependence can be manipulated by changing the morphology of nanostructure easily. My experience taught me that silver nanostructures must be freshly prepared. They are easily oxidised and lose their SERS performances in a few weeks. However, gold nanoparticles have higher stability. For the ease of synthesis, gold nanoparticles are also better. On the other hand, generally silver nanostructures exhibits two-order higher SERS efficiency. I think in order to choose the nanoparticle material, one should determine priorities of the proposed system.
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