Issue 2, 2018

Aluminum nanostructures with strong visible-range SERS activity for versatile micropatterning of molecular security labels

Abstract

The application of aluminum (Al)-based nanostructures for visible-range plasmonics, especially for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), currently suffers from inconsistent local electromagnetic field distributions and/or inhomogeneous distribution of probe molecules. Herein, we lithographically fabricate structurally uniform Al nanostructures which enable homogeneous adsorption of various probe molecules. Individual Al nanostructures exhibit strong local electromagnetic field enhancements, in turn leading to intense SERS activity. The average SERS enhancement factor (EF) for individual nanostructures exceeds 104 for non-resonant probe molecules in the visible spectrum. These Al nanostructures also retain more than 70% of their original SERS intensities after one-month storage, displaying superb stability under ambient conditions. We further achieve tunable polarization-dependent SERS responses using anisotropic Al nanostructures, facilitating the design of sophisticated SERS-based security labels. Our micron-sized security label comprises two-tier security features, including a machine-readable hybrid quick-response (QR) code overlaid with a set of ciphertexts. Our work demonstrates the versatility of Al-based structures in low-cost modern chemical nano-analytics and forgery protection.

Graphical abstract: Aluminum nanostructures with strong visible-range SERS activity for versatile micropatterning of molecular security labels

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 Okt 2017
Accepted
29 Nov 2017
First published
15 Dis 2017

Nanoscale, 2018,10, 575-581

Aluminum nanostructures with strong visible-range SERS activity for versatile micropatterning of molecular security labels

C. L. Lay, C. S. L. Koh, J. Wang, Y. H. Lee, R. Jiang, Y. Yang, Z. Yang, I. Y. Phang and X. Y. Ling, Nanoscale, 2018, 10, 575 DOI: 10.1039/C7NR07793A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements