Cu–Au alloy nanotubes with five-fold twinned structure and their application in surface-enhanced Raman scattering

Abstract

Cu–Au alloy nanostructures have received considerable attention in recent years due to their widespread use in applications such as catalysis, photonics and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection. In this article, a template-based strategy has been developed to synthesize Cu–Au nanotubes with five-fold twinned structure by using Cu nanowires as templates and AuPPh₃Cl as Au precursors in the organic phase of oleylamine. It was verified that high quality Cu–Au alloy nanotubes could result from the Cu–Au alloy effect, the Kirkendall effect, and the galvanic replacement reaction. It was also demonstrated that the Cu–Au alloy nanotubes may have potential applications in SERS detection because of their good stability and convenience for building “hot spots”.