Size controllable synthesis of ultrafine spherical gold particles and their simulation of plasmonic and SERS behaviors

A simple and reproducible way was explored to synthesize quasi-spherical gold particles with different size distributions in water by rapidly adding a mixture solution of HAuCl4, sodium citrate, and a trace amount of silver nitrate. By careful tuning of the reaction parameters, mono-disperse gold particles with the diameter of 5–220 nm can be obtained controllably. The particle size of 130 nm for the particles film showed the highest SERS activity with the 632.8 nm excitation. The theoretical calculations of the UV–vis extinction spectra can be directly compared with experiments by using the discrete-dipole approximation (DDA). Control of nanostructure shape allows optimization of plasmon resonance for molecular detection and spectroscopy.