Silver nanoplate-pillared mesoporous nano-clays for surface enhanced raman scattering

Due to characteristic properties of silver (Ag), Ag nanoparticles have attracted unprecedented attention in various scientific fields such as sensors, catalysts, antibacterial materials, and so on. To obtain tailor-made functionalities of Ag nanoparticles with desired physicochemical properties, proper fabrication process is needed to control their sizes, morphologies or arrangements by hybridization with different components, immobilization on solid struts, and etc. Herein, we suggest a facile synthetic route to obtain Ag-pillared mesoporous nanoclays through simultaneous crystal growth and arrangement of Ag nanoplates with the help of a 2-dimensional inorganic template. To obtain Ag-pillars, layered silver-thiolate self-assembly was exfoliated to monolayers (Ag precursor) and then in-situ hybridized with layered double hydroxide in a layer-by-layer manner. Through reductive calcination, silver thiolate transformed to Ag-pillars which grew in nanoplate morphology with well-arrangement in confined space of nanoclays. Crystal structure, morphology, and pore structure of Ag-pillars in nanoclays were systematically characterized. Surface enhanced Raman scattering effect of arranged Ag-pillars on metal oxide substrate obtained upon calcination was also investigated with rhodamine 6 G.