The enhanced Raman scattering of Ag nanoparticles decorated on the carbon nanotube via a simple manipulation

The composite structure of “multi-walled carbon nanotube” (MWCNT) loaded with metallic silver has been prepared as an efficient “surface enhanced Raman scattering” (SERS) matrix via efficient magnetron sputtering method. The experimental results show that incorporating silver with the MWCNT can yield extremely high SERS activity. And its detection concentration level for “Rhodamine 6G” (Rh6G) is down to 10−10 M. This is due to a fact that the MWCNT with porous network structure can provide sufficient anchoring sites for silver dispersion, which can increase number of “hot spots” to boost SERS physical enhancement effect. Lastly, we also studied the effect of silver loading on the SERS performance and optimized silver decoration parameter.