Silver nanocrescents with infrared plasmonic properties as tunable substrates for surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy

We exploit the unique infrared plasmonic properties of silver nanocrescents (AgNCs) in preparing tunable substrates for surface enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy. Fabrication provides good control over the crescents' structural properties which enables tuning of the localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) from the visible through the infrared (IR) regions of the spectrum. Using AgNCs as uniquely tunable IR LSPR substrates, we demonstrate the impact of spectral tuning on maximizing SEIRA signal enhancements measured for adsorbed alkylthiolates. The AgNCs demonstrate the largest reported area-normalized SEIRA signal enhancements which increase from 7,700 to 46,000 depending on the relative positions of the AgNC's LSPR frequency and the molecular vibration frequency. The SEIRA enhancement increases and the absorption band line shape becomes more asymmetric as the AgNCs' LSPR frequency overlaps more extensively with the frequency of the probed molecular vibration. The tunability of the LSPR properties will enable fundamental SEIRA studies and the development of optimized SEIRA substrates for detection and identification of molecular adsorbates.