Fabrication of Gold Nanoflowers and the Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering Performance

Gold nanoflowers were simply produced in aqueous solution containing peptides (NH2-Leu-Aib-Trp-Ome) and sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate. HAuCl4 was reduced by peptides. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy images show flower-like nanoparticles were about 50-100 nm. X-ray diffraction and electron diffraction patterns suggest face-centred cubic structures for these gold branched nanoparticles. There are three main stages in the growth of the gold nanoparticles: nanocrystal, aggregated nanoparticle, and flower-like nanostructure. The performance of the gold nanoflowers when used for surface enhanced Raman scattering was explored using crystal violet as the probe, which indicates that the these gold nanoflowers are promising for use as excellent surface enhanced Raman scattering substrates.