One-pot synthesis of silver colloid with body-heat for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy detections

Abstract In this study, a convenient method of preparing the substrate is proposed with one-pot synthesis of silver colloid under body heat, and the SERS detection uses the fresh substrate to avoid the drawback of substrates’ short life of use. The synthesis of silver colloid is carried out in a 10 mL vial by using ascorbic acid as a reductant and trisodium citrate as a stabilizer. The vial is grasped with the palm of the experimenter for several minutes without shaking. The proposed method is simple, rapid, green energy and cost-effective. By adjusting the concentration of trisodium citrate, not only the particle size can be controlled from about 110 nm to 50 nm but also the homogeneity of nanoparticles can be improved. As a SERS substrate, the silver colloid has high batch reproducibility and showed good SERS activity. The relative standard deviation between different manufacturers is 5.51% when the substrate of silver colloid is used for the detection of rhodamine 6 G. Using the substrate, the lowest detection concentrations of rhodamine 6 G, crystal violet, enrofloxacin, melamine and leucomalachite green are 1.0 × 10 −8 , 6.1 × 10 −8 , 1.4 × 10 -6 , 7.1 × 10 -5 and 5.1 × 10 −8 mol/L, respectively. Results demonstrate that the developed method has the advantage of convenience and high efficiency in the field preparation of reliable SERS substrate.