Synthesis of silver particles decorated anodic aluminium oxide substrates for metal-enhanced fluorescence

Silver nanoparticles for metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) have been successfully synthesised by pulsed electrodeposition of silver in the anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) templates. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy indicate that the as-synthesised samples were composed of face-centred cubic Ag nanoparticles and the average nanoparticle size increased with the increasing electrodeposition time. The UV-visible reflection spectra were measured to investigate the surface plasma resonance absorbance. Taking rhodamine B as the probing molecule, high-quality MEF spectra were observed by excitation with a 480-nm laser line. The enhancement ability could be well controlled by simply adjusting the deposition times. The high enhancement factor suggests that this substrate could be used to fabricate -hot spots- for MEF.