Hollow and nanoporous Ag sub-microcubes as SERS substrates.

In this work, Ag(NH 3 ) 2 NO 3 microcubes are obtained by directly evaporating the silver ammonia complex solution. In Na 3 Cit solution, each Ag(NH 3 ) 2 NO 3 microcube can crumble into lots of Ag 3 Cit sub-microcubes with uniform size, which serve as sacrificial templates to yield Ag sub-microcages. The as-obtained Ag cages possess ultra-high surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensitivity towards R6G and thiram.