Silver nanowire decorated template-free grown Co 3 O 4 nanocones: a 3D SERS substrate for H 2 O 2 sensing

We have demonstrated an effective method to develop a 3D nanostructure of silver nanowire-decorated mesoporous cobalt oxide nanocones on a glass substrate. A detailed study of the structural and morphological properties of the substrate was carried out. Furthermore, the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensing performance of these nanostructure hybrids for the effective detection of H 2 O 2 was evaluated. The substrate shows excellent detection behaviour even at very low concentrations (10 −14 M) of H 2 O 2 . The studies show that the developed 3D nanostructure is very useful for developing efficient SERS substrates for onsite environmental, forensic and food safety monitoring.