Controllable synthesis and SERS characteristics of hollow sea-urchin gold nanoparticles

Hollow sea-urchin gold nanoparticles (HSU-GNPs) were successfully prepared through a novel one-step galvanic replacement strategy, and their corresponding optical properties was studied in detail. During the synthesis process, the sizes of the interior hollows of the HSU-GNPs could be changed by adjusting the amount of silver nitrate added into hydrogen tetrachloroaurate trihydrate solution. The absorption spectra of the HSU-GNPs showed that the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peaks were red-shifted with increasing size of the interior hollows in the HSU-GNPs. When the added amount of silver nitrate was up to 6 μl, the LSPR peak of the synthesized HSU-GNP reached 726 nm as a maximum red-shift. Furthermore, the absorption spectra of the HSU-GNPs with different morphologies were theoretically simulated by the finite element method, which was consistent with the experimental results and explained the origin of the red-shift of the LSPR peaks. In addition, the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) of the sea urchin gold nanoparticles were also investigated using 4-mercaptobenzoic acid as a Raman reporter molecule. Both the experimental and calculated results showed that the HSU-GNPs had stronger SERS enhancement than the solid sea-urchin gold nanoparticles. In particular, the HSU-GNPs prepared by adding 6 μl silver nitrate exhibited a maximum SERS enhancement factor, EF = 1.1 × 10(9), due to the LSPR peak at 726 nm which is near to the excitation wavelength, 785 nm. This feature is significant for designing a biosensor with a super-high sensitivity based on the morphology of the HSU-GNPs.