Novel fabrication of an Au nanocone array on polycarbonate for high performance surface-enhanced Raman scattering

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) with enormous enhancements has been applied for ultra-sensitive detection in various fields, but the fabrication of large-scale, controllable and cost-effective substrates is a major challenge. We propose a novel fabrication process with a gas-assisted hot embossing process and an anodic aluminum oxide template to obtain the SERS substrate on a 1 × 1 cm polycarbonate film. The SERS spectra of 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (PMBA) on the gold substrate have been measured. The enhancement factors are between 3.99 × 107 and 4.92 × 107, depending on the heights of nanocones, which can be controlled by the embossing temperature and pressure. The simple and inexpensive SERS substrate has potential for wide application in SERS-based sensors.