Rhodamine 6G as a Mediator of Silver Nanoparticles Aggregation

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering is the phenomenon where a huge increase of Raman scattering intensity from molecules situated close to the metal nanoobjects is observed. Our study is focused on the method of SERS-activation of silver nanoparticles and, in the future, the application of thus obtained SERS substrates for biomedical purposes. As expected, the intensity of Raman scattering from rhodamine 6G used here as a SERS probe strongly increase during the early stages of aggregation of silver sol. Moreover, the evolution of extinction spectra and changes in the degree of the colloid aggregation observed in DLS measurements point out that molecules of the dye do not participate passively in the aggregation process but greatly affect its course.