Fabrication of metal half-shells using colloidal particle monolayer and their application in surface-enhanced Raman scattering

Three types of Au shells, an isolated half-shell, one-dimensional strings of shells, and two-dimensional films, were fabricated by using a monolayer of polystyrene (PS) particles with diameters of 213, 560, and 1360 nm. The three types of Au shells that were removed from the PS particle monolayer and the as-deposited Au shells that adhered to PS particles were modified with 4-mercaptopyridine for use as platforms for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). We examined the effects of the shapes and sizes of Au shells on their SERS efficiency and found that the Au shells exhibited strong SERS signals and that Au shells prepared by using 560-nm PS particles were the most suitable platform for SERS at both 632.8- and 785-nm excitations. Further, we found that SERS enhancements depended on the shape of Au shells and on whether Au shells adhered to PS particles or not.