Synthesis of 2.5 nm colloidal iridium nanoparticles with strong surface enhanced Raman scattering activity

Colloidal iridium nanoparticles (IrNPs) were synthesized through an environmentally friendly approach by using trisodium citrate as the capping molecule in an aqueous medium. The resulting colloidal IrNPs have a typical diameter of 2.5 nm and display absorption bands at 250, 400 and 600 nm. They possess uniform morphology, good dispersibility, excellent stability in water, and exhibit strong surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity with an enhancement factor (EF) of 3.5 × 10⁵ at the 1512 cm^-1 peak when using Rhodamine 6G as the probe molecule. The excellent SERS performance of the IrNPs was exemplarily applied to the determination of the industrial colorant Sudan Red I. The peak intensity of the Raman band at 1236 cm^-1 is linearly related to the concentration of Sudan Red I which can be determined by SERS in the 2 nM to 8 μM concentration range with a limit of detection as low as 0.6 nM. In our perception, this strong SERS activity of the IrNPs has a large potential in the SERS-based quantitation of various chemical substances. (author)