Facile fabrication of gold nanoparticle arrays for efficient surface-enhanced Raman scattering

An effective and facile method for the fabrication of a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-active film with closely packed gold nanoparticle (AuNP) arrays is proposed by self-assembly of different sizes ( 16, 25, 40 and 70 nm) of AuNPs at a toluene/water interface with ethanol as the inducer. The as-prepared AuNP arrays exhibit efficient Raman scattering enhancement, and the enhancement factors estimated using p-aminothiophenol as a probe molecule range from 10(5) to 10(7).