Improving themolecular specificity of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

The synthesis of silver colloid particles with controlled size signifi-cantly increases the application range of surface-enhanced Raman spec-troscopy. Silver nanoparticles are currently generating significant inter-est due to their attractive physicochemical properties. In recent years, they have demonstrated their potential in catalysis and electronics applications,1, 2 in the fabrication of highly sensitive detectors,3 and as substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spec-troscopy (SERS).4 Since their usage depends on particle characteristics such as size, size distribution, and charge, our present research is fo-cused on the fabrication of SERS-active nanoparticles using syn-thesis approaches that allow particle size control. Recently, our group used sugars as reducing agents and ammonia as a com-plexing agent to produce silver nanoparticles ranging in siz