reagents were used to prepare the silver cubic nanoparticles and SERS
substrates: trisodium citrate dihydrate, silver nitrate, potassium
chloride, ethylene glycol, ethanol, acetone (all of the above reagents
were from POCH S.A.), sodium sulfide (Sigma-Aldrich), polyvinylpyrrolidone
(PVP) with an average molar mass of ca. 4 × 104 g/mol
(Fluka), glycerin (Chempur), ammonium fluoride (Chempur), and pyridine
(UniChem). All of the chemicals were used without further purification
or treatment. The water was purified by a Millipore Milli-Q system
and had a resistivity of ca. 18 MΩ/cm11. A titanium
foil (0.25 mm-thick and 99.5% purity) from Alfa Aesar was used to
form the ATO (anodic titanium oxide) layer, and the reference was
a flat SERS substrate cut into 1 cm2 round plates. Before
anodization, all the plates were cleaned ultrasonically with acetone
and ethanol, rinsed with water, and dried in air.