The preparation of silver nanoparticle decorated silica nanowires on fused quartz as reusable versatile nanostructured surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates.

We introduce a platform, comprised of silver nanoparticle decorated silica nanowires (SiONWs) dispersed on fused quartz substrates, for high sensitivity surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) measurements using both frontal (through the analytes) and back-face (through the transparent substrate) excitation. Quasi-quantitative SERS performances on the specialized substrate, vis-à-vis a silver deposited bare fused quartz plate, showed: (i) the suitability of the Ag modified SiONW substrate for frontal as well as back-face excitation; (ii) a wider detection range with high sensitivity to Rhodamine 6G; and (iii) good underwater metal-oxide adhesion of the specialized substrates. Capable of surviving ultrasonic cleaning, the substrate introduced is one of the few reusable low-cost Ag-based nanostructured SERS substrates, requiring only a simple silver reload process (the silver mirror reaction).