A Renewable SERS Substrate Prepared by Cyclic Depositing and Stripping of Silver Shells on Gold Nanoparticle Microtubes

By controlling the deposition and desquamation of silver shells, a renewable SERS nanoparticle microtube is prepared (see figure). The vibrational modes of dominated bands in SERS spectra correlate with the distribution of silver atoms on nanoparticles. Silver–gold microtubes with sharp-edge nanosheets exhibit the highest enhancement ability of SERS. A detection limit is down to 6.0 × 10−12 M is possible for 4-ATP.