Soft chemistry of pure silver as unique plasmonic metal of the Periodic Table of Elements

Abstract

Abstract The International Year of The Periodic Table of Chemical Elements revealed that the Table remains both a deeply fundamental paradigm for various branches of chemistry and a universal practical tool for predictable design of new materials. Silver is a notable “nanoelement” particularly known by its plasmonic properties. A key advantage of this metal is an easily achievable morphological variety of nanostructured materials. This element represents a research branch of precise engineering of shapes and sizes of nanoparticle ensembles and smart hierarchic nanostructures. In the review, unique features of silver are discussed with respect to the development of novel analytical methods for forthcoming applications of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) in ecology, biology and medicine.