Monodisperse Noble-Metal Nanoparticles and Their Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering Properties

Monodisperse Au, Ag, and Au 3 Pd nanoparticles (NPs) with narrow size distribution are prepared by direct reaction of the related metal salt with oleylamine in toluene. Oleylamine serves as both a reducing agent and a surfactant in the synthesis. The sizes and shape of these NPs are tuned by reaction temperatures. The hydrophobic oleylamine-coated NPs can be made water soluble by replacing oleylamine with 3-mercaptopropionic acid. Both surface plasmonic resonance (SPR) and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) observed from the Au and Ag NPs are found to be NP size- and surface-dependent.