Synthesis of Magneto-Plasmonic Hybrid Au-Fe(Oxide) Nanoparticles and Their Use as SERS Substrates

Magneto-plasmonics (MP) refers to nanomaterials that simultaneously exhibit plasmonic and magnetic phenomena, typically achieved by combining plasmonic materials like Au, Ag, and Cu with magnetic 3d metals and their oxides. We present experimental results on the laser ablation synthesis in solution (LASiS) of Au-Fe(oxide) core-shell nanoparticles (NP) in water. Our nanoparticles were characterized through UV-Vis spectroscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy, Dynamic Light Scattering, and Raman spectroscopy. As a proof-of-concept, we successfully used our Au-Fe(oxide) NP as substrates in Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) to detect minute amounts of biological molecules like thiourea and urea in aqueous solutions.