Etching and Dimerization: A Simple and Versatile Route to Dimers of Silver Nanospheres with a Range of Sizes

Two by two, hurrah! Hurrah! Dimers of Ag nanospheres with a range of sizes were generated by etching Ag nanocubes with Fe(NO3)3 in ethanol in the presence of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP). These well-defined dimers (see TEM image) enable systematic study of the hot-spot phenomenon in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS).