Surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy of dendrimer-entrapped gold nanoparticles

In this paper we report the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy, which is used to detect the probe in chemical and biological analysis based on the colloidal gold (Au) plasmonic resonance spectroscopy. The Au nano-particles (NP) synthesized by the hydroxylamine seed mediated growing method with controllable sizes of 30 nm, 50 nm to 90 nm, respectively, are employed to study the assembled nano-Au thickness effect. For the purpose of high sensitivity of SERS the dendrimer polyamido amine (PAMAM) is also used. The results reveal that SERS efficiency depended on the Au NPs size and the generation of dendrimer PAMAM. The highest intensity in the spectroscopy is achieved in 50 nm Au NPs assembled Si substrates, which increases significantly along with the generations of PAMAM.

► We use the dendrimer PAMAM to improve sensitivity of the surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy.
► The facile synthesis nano‐Au was employed in the SERS.
► The sensitivity of SERS depends on the nano‐Au size and concentration and the dendrimer generation.