A General Strategy to Prepare TiO(2)-core Gold-shell Nanoparticles as SERS-tags.

The synthesis and characterization of TiO(2)-based core-shell nanoparticles as surface-enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) tags are reported. A hydrolysis approach is first used to generate colloidal TiO(2) nanoparticles, which are subsequently tagged with Raman probe molecules and encapsulated within a gold nanoshell. The resulting core-shell nanoparticles are characterized by using a number of techniques including UV-visible spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) to confirm the successful coating of the Au shells. These core-shell nanoparticles exhibit very strong and reproducible SERS signals of the Raman probe molecules. Three different types of Raman probe molecules are used to prepare different SERS-active nanoparticles (SERS-tags), which demonstrates the versatility of the design. Such TiO(2)-based metal-coated core-shell nanoparticles will be useful as SERS-tags in biological assay and imaging applications. They may also provide a platform for fundamental studies in the ongoing investigations on the mechanisms of SERS.