One-pot aqueous synthesis of icosahedral Au as bifunctional candidates for enhanced glucose electrooxidation and surface-enhanced Raman scattering

Bifunctional candidates, which could provide catalytic and plasmonic properties simultaneously, could activate a promising development for biomedicine. Here, we kinetically controlled synthesize penta-twinned icosahedral Au (Ih Au) by a facile wet-chemical protocol without assistance of stabilizers. Benefiting from icosahedral morphology and kinetic synthesis process, the Ih Au nanoparticles (NPs) incorporates three key advantages: (i) ample active sites / “hot spots” and surface strain; (ii) good stability/chemical inertness, and easy functionalization; (iii) biological compatibility and clean surface, which could promote their electrocatalysis and photonic capacity. Ih Au nanoparticles (NPs), as bifunctional nanomaterials, exerts excellent electrocatalytic for glucose electrooxidation (GEO) and good surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) performance. Ih Au delivers a highest GEO peak current density with 6.87 mA cm-2, which is 14 times larger than that of Turkevich Au (0.49 mA cm-2) under the same con...