ASSEMBLING COLLOIDAL AU NANOPARTICLES WITH FUNCTIONALIZED SELF-ASSEMBLED MONOLAYERS

Pyridyl-terminated organic surface was created by self-assembling p-me rcaptopyridine (p-MPy) onto sputtered gold substrates, on which well-d efined gold nanoparticulate films were formed with a submonolayer cove rage, as revealed by the tapping mode atomic farce microscopic (AFM) o bservations. Thus-prepared gold nanoparticulate films were shown to be active for surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), as evidenced by the strongly enhanced Raman scattering from the underlying SAMs. It mi ght be the first report to demonstrate that colloidal gold nanoparticu late film can intrinsically enhance the Raman scattering of the molecu les just below it. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.