Raman reporters derived from aryl diazonium salts for SERS encoded-nanoparticles

Abstract

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) tags are usually prepared by immobilizing Raman reporters on plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) via thiol-based self-assembled monolayers. We describe here the first example of SERS tags obtained by combining gold NPs and aryl diazonium salts. This strategy results in robust Au–C covalent bonds between the Raman reporter and the NPs, thus ensuring a high stability of the nanohybrid interface.