(766a) Gelatin Stabilized Noble Metalic Nanoparticles for SERS Detection

Gelatin reduced and stabilized noble metallic nanoparticles have been developed with one-pot, green synthesis for Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) applications. Both gold and silvernanoparticles were developed and the size of the particle was determined to be 17~ 18 nm  for gold nanoparticles and 8 ~ 13 nm for silver nanoparticles by TEM. The size of the nanoparticles was dependent on the initial gelatin concentration during the synthesis.

Gelatin was chosen for both reducing and stabilizing agent for many advantages over conventional methods including easy one-pot preparation, water solubility, improved stability, providing proper gap between metallic surface and SERS substrate molecules. SERS sensitivity of gelatin gold and silver nanoparticles were compared with Rhodamine 6G (R6G) and Ru(BPy) as reporter molecules. And for silver nanoparticles, the SERS sensitivity for melamine and folic acid was shown. The concentration of the SERS substrates for the detection was as low as 0.1 µM for R6G and Ru(BPy) and 10 µM for melamine and folic acid in case of silver nanoparticles.