Zinc Oxide Tetrapods Doped with Silver Nanoparticles as a Promising Substrate for the Detection of Biomolecules via Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

Abstract

In this study, we report the fabrication and characterization of silver nanoparticle-doped zinc oxide tetrapod substrates used for surface-enhanced Raman scattering to detect rhodamine B. Prior to this, silver nanoparticle-doped zinc oxide tetrapods were synthesized using the solar physical vapor deposition method. Subsequently, silver-doped zinc oxide tetrapods were applied onto silicon wafers via the droplet evaporation process. The surface-enhanced Raman scattering activity of the silver nanoparticle-doped zinc oxide tetrapod substrate was evaluated by detecting rhodamine B using Raman spectroscopy. Our results demonstrate that the silver nanoparticle-doped zinc oxide tetrapod substrate exhibits surface-enhanced Raman scattering activity and can detect rhodamine B at concentrations as low as 3 μg/mL. This study suggests that silver nanoparticle-doped zinc oxide tetrapod substrates have potential as surface-enhanced Raman scattering platforms as well as potential for the detection of biomolecules. © 2024 by the authors. This is an open-access article: Vanags, E.; Bite, I.; Ignatane, L.; Ignatans, R.; Trausa, A.; Tipaldi, C.F.; Vilks, K.; Smits, K. Zinc Oxide Tetrapods Doped with Silver Nanoparticles as a Promising Substrate for the Detection of Biomolecules via Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy. ChemEngineering 2024, 8, 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemengineering8010019 published under the CC BY 4.0 licence.