CTAB micelles assisted rGO-AgNP hybrids for SERS detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

A structure of hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) micelle-assisted reduced graphene oxide-Ag nanoparticle (rGO-AgNP) hybrids is designed and fabricated for SERS detection of nonpolar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), in which CTAB micelles act as the host material to capture PAH molecules. This method provides stable aqueous suspensions of functionalized graphene with an alkyl chain, since the rGO-AgNP hybrids do not need to be pre-modified by CTAB. The result shows that the CTAB-assisted rGO-AgNP substrate has excellent SERS performance toward PAHs and ideal stability under continuous laser radiation. With further optimization, the detection limits of pyrene and perylene were 10 −6 M and 10 −7 M, respectively. Two different PAH molecules could be detected simultaneously by their characteristic peaks. A facile and convenient strategy to detect polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is presented, using graphene-Ag nanoparticle hybrids as a surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrate.