Electrochemical aging of silver nanoparticles and its effects on bio-chemical sensing properties

Abstract

In this work, interesting findings on the change in time stability for SERS and SEF based bio-chemical sensing properties of Ag nanoparticle films are reported. Ag nanoparticles were deposited on a Si or SiO₂ substrate using DC magnetron sputtering. By immersion of the Ag nanoparticle films into the Crystal Violet (CV) aqueous solutions, the long time stability of Ag nanoparticle films, from both the morphology, and SERS and SEF based sensing performances, were measured. Some key parameters like CV concentration and substrate conductivity were also discussed. We believe that the results reported in this paper can provide us with a reference regarding the environmental stability of the metal nanomaterials as well as their precision or reliability in the development of highly sensitive bio-chemical sensors.