SERS activity of photoreduced silver chloride crystals

Metal nanoparticles are widely acclaimed as plasmonic substrates for surface -enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) due to their unique particle plasmon resonances at visible and near infrared regions. Silver nanoparticles are typically employed in SERS when the targeted Raman signature zone of analytes lies at ultra-violet and/or blue to green spectral regimes. Even though silver has strong plasmonic properties, silver-based substrates are often affected by the atmospheric oxidation and show degradation in their SERS performance. One way to overcome this limitation is to use silver chloride crystals as oxidation resistant intermediate and photoreduce them to 'fresh' silver just before SERS an…