SERS mechanism of nickel electrode

Based on the theoretical model for the twodimensional arrays, the dependence of the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) effect of nickel electrode, especially the ordered two-dimensional nanowires, on the incident photon energy in the range of 0.6–4.0 eV are analyzed, and most of the works are focused on the effect of the shape of nano-particles. The theoretical analysis shows that nickel can exhibit weak surface-enhanced Raman scattering effect when the surface is roughened properly, and the enhancement factor is about 10²–10⁴. Compared to the typical highly SERS-active Ag substrate, the SERS of nickel does not show the character of surface plasma resonance of the metal. The calculated result shows that the lightning-rod effect contributes the most to the SERS of Ni nanowires in the EM mechanism. The theoretical prediction is in good agreement with the experimental result qualitatively and may be instructive to finding a new method to fabricate the SERS-active transition-metal substrate.