Polyol method and surface functionalization of silver nanowires using bovine serum albumin for surface-enhanced Raman scattering application

Silver nanowires (AgNWs) with diverse applications are attracting the attention of many researchers around the world. In this study, we applied the polyol method to synthesize AgNWs based on Polyvinyl-pyrrolidone (PVP) average molecular weight of 360,000, ethylene glycol (EG), and AgNO3 precursor with a fresh AgCl preparation. To synthesize this material we first investigate optimal parameters through the influence of reaction temperature, time of creating AgNWs using plasmon absorption spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. The obtained AgNWs are high efficiency, large aspect ratio, and good dispersion in the solution. This sample continues to be conducted to surface functionalization by bovine serum albumin (BSA) molecules to develop AgNW@BSA complexes. We apply UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy to evaluate the optical properties of these complexes. Besides, we conduct research on the application of this material on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The results show that the optical properties of these complexes obtained from UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy are comparable with the numerical modeling. In addition, AgNWs can be used to study the effective surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) to detect methylene blue (MB) molecules at low concentrations as 10-12 M.