Synthesis Of Differently Sized Gold Nanoparticles For Sers Applications In The Detection Of Malachite Green

Malachite green (MG) is a water pollutant that is difficult to detect rapidly. In this study, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) was used to detect the presence of MG in water. Three kinds of gold nanoparticles with different sizes were prepared via a traditional sodium citrate reduction method and used for the SERS detection of MG standard samples. Optimally sized gold nanoparticles were used as the SERS substrate for the detection of MG in simulated real water samples. The SERS enhancement effect was the greatest when using gold nanoparticles with sizes of 36 +/- 4 nm. In the simulated real water samples, the minimum detection limit of MG was 10(-7) M.