One-step hydrothermal synthesis of Ag/Cu2O heterogeneous nanostructures over Cu foil and their SERS applications

Abstract

In this paper, Ag/Cu2O heterogeneous nanostructured films (HNFs) were prepared by a one-step hydrothermal method. It involved only two materials, AgNO3 and Cu foil, in the aqueous solution to form Ag/Cu2O HNF. X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) were used to characterize the Ag/Cu2O films. Ag nanoparticles and Cu2O nanocubes were formed by redox reactions and the Ag nanoparticles deposited on the Cu2O nanocubes via electrostatic attraction. The obtained Ag/Cu2O HNF was found to be a good candidate for SERS application.