Facile In Situ Photochemical Synthesis of Silver Nanoaggregates for Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Applications

Recently, photochemical synthesis has attracted wide interest on in situ preparing the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate with excellent performance, especially in a compact space and microfluidic channel. Herein, a facile, green and cost-effective approach to in situ photochemically synthesize silver nanoaggregates is demonstrated for SERS applications. By adjusting the photo-irradiation conditions, the morphologies and sizes of the silver nanoaggregates can be deliberately tailored. The synthesized silver nanoaggregates-based substrates exhibit a highly sensitive and reproducible SERS activity with a low detection limit of 10(−8) M for 4-Aminothiophenol detection and relative standard deviation of 12.3%, paving an efficient and promising route for in situ SERS-based rapid detection in the environmental monitoring and food quality control.