[Synthesis of Ultra-Uniform Gold Spherical Nanoparticles with Different Sizes and Their SERS Effects Study]

A series of ultra-uniform gold spherical nanoparticles with different sizes were synthesized using gold chloride acid as precursor, ascorbic acid as reductant and sodium citrate hydrate as surfactant. The prepared Au nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and UV-visible spectroscopy. The results showed that the absorption peak of UV-Vis spectroscopy red-shifted along with size increasing of the nanoparticles and finally appeared a quadrupole peak. To further explore the mechanism of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) effect and optimize the sensitivity, SERS on Au nanoparticles with different sizes were measured using Rhodamine 6G (R6G) as probe molecule. We found the SERS signals of R6G on the Au nanoaprtciles were highly size dependent. When the particles sizes are close to -120 nm, it will generate the highest enhancement, the enhancement factor is about 1.1 x 10(7). The 3D-FDTD simulation results correlated with the experimental data very well.