Ethanol Vapor Sensing Properties of Triangular Silver Nanostructures Based on Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance.docVIP

Sensors 2011, 11, 8643-8653; doi:10.3390/s110908643 OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article Ethanol Vapor Sensing Properties of Triangular Silver Nanostructures Based on Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance Wenying Ma 1,2,*, Huan Yang 2, Weimin Wang 2, Ping Gao 2 and Jun Yao 2 1 Department of Communication Engineering, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu 610225, China 2 State Key Lab of Optical Technologies for Microfabrication, Institute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Science, Chengdu 610209, China; E-Mails: yanghuan@ (H.Y.); wwm06@ (W.W.); pinggao1986@ (P.G.); junyao@ (J.Y.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: wyingma@; Tel.: +86-28-8596-6249; Fax: +86-28-8596-6249. Received: 25 July 2011; in revised form: 28 August 2011 / Accepted: 31 August 2011 / Published: 5 September 2011 Abstract: A sensitive volatile organic vapor sensor based on the LSPR properties of silver triangular nanoprisms is proposed in this paper. The triangular nanoprisms were fabricated by a nanosphere lithography (NSL) method. They have sharp vertices and edges, and are arranged in an ideal hexangular array. These characteristics ensure that they exhibit an excellent LSPR spectrum and a high sensitivity to the exterior environment changes. The LSPR spectra responding to ethanol vapor and four other volatile organic vapors—acetone, benzene, hexane and propanol—were measured with a UV-vis spectrometer in real time. Compared with the other four vapors, ethanol exhibits the highest sensitivity (~0.1 nm/mg L?1) and the lowest detection limit (~10 mg/L) in the spectral tests. The ethanol vapor test process is also fast (~4 s) and reversible. These insights demonstrate that the triangular nanoprism based nano-sensor can be used in ethanol vapor detection applications. Keywords: localized surface plasmon resonance; volatile organic vapor; triangular n