Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a technique that can identify molecules at very low concentrations and so can be exploited in many analytical applications, such as forensics, medical diagnostics and identifying new drugs. Now, a team of researchers in Spain and Belgium has made a new and efficient SERS system from gold nanoparticles protected by radial mesoporous silica shells. The radial channels serve as templates that help gold tips to grow like branches from the cores, which improves their plasmonic performance…..
http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/62738
