Synthesis of silver particles decorated anodic aluminium oxide substrates for metal-enhanced fluorescence
Silver nanoparticles for metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) have been successfully synthesised by pulsed electrodeposition of silver in the anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) templates. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy indicate that the as-synthesised samples were composed of face-centred cubic Ag nanoparticles and the average nanoparticle size increased with the increasing electrodeposition time. The UV–visible reflection spectra were measured to investigate the surface plasma resonance absorbance. Taking rhodamine B as the probing molecule, high-quality MEF spectra were observed by excitation with a 480 nm laser line. The enhancement ability could be well controlled by simply adjusting the deposition times. The high enhancement factor suggests that this substrate could be used to fabricate ‘hot spots’ for MEF.