Graphene oxide-decorated silver dendrites for high-performance surface-enhanced Raman scattering applications

We demonstrate graphene oxide (GO)-decorated Ag dendritic nanostructures on a copper substrate for surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) applications. The Ag dendrites (AgD) were synthesized through a facile and low-cost galvanic replacement reaction of Ag nitrate solution and copper foils. The AgD/Cu was further decorated with GO by a dip-coating method. The GO-decorated AgD exhibited a much higher SERS activity in terms of sensitivity, signal-to-noise ratio and stability compared with non-decorated AgD, indicating that the GO/AgD/Cu substrates could be potentially useful for highly sensitive molecule detecting applications.