Facile fabrication of large area of aggregated gold nanorods film for efficient surface-enhanced Raman scattering

An effective and facile method for fabrication of large area of aggregated gold nanorods (AuNRs) film was proposed by self-assembly of AuNRs at a toluene/water interface for the first time. It was found that large area of aggregated AuNRs film could be formed at the interface of toluene and water due to the interfacial tension between the two phases. The obtained large area of aggregated AuNRs film exhibits strong surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity with 4-aminothiophenol (4-ATP) and 2-aminothiophenol (2-ATP) as the probe molecules based on the strong electromagnetic coupling effect between the very adjacent AuNRs.