The Controllable Synthesis and SERS Studies of Hollow Urchin-like Gold Nanoparticles

Abstract

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is widely used to provide chemical and physical information, causing widespread attention in many fields, such as biochemical and bioscience fields.To get high SERS signals, noble nanoparticles are applied in SERS detection.Hollow urchin-like gold nanoparticles (HU-GNPs) are a novel nanostructure, which contains rough surfaces and sharp branches.Owing to "Hot spots" effect, it can enhance the surrounding electromagnetic field, generating good SERS effects.In this paper, using seed-mediated growth method, hollow urchin-like gold nanoparticles were prepared.Besides, controllable synthesis was achieved to get the optimal HU-GNPs with good morphology, uniformity and SERS enhancement.And then, SERS substrates were built with HU-GNPs by electrostatic self-assembly method.The SERS signals of NBA can be detected at different concentrations from 10-5 M to 10-9 M. At the same time, field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) were used for the characterization of the nanoparticles.