Surface enhanced Raman scattering of pyridine adsorbed on Au@Pd core/shell nanoparticles

Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) of pyridine adsorbed on Au@Pd core/shell nanoparticles has been investigated theoretically with quantum chemical method, generalized Mie theory and three-dimensional finite-difference time domain (3D-FDTD) method. We first studied the influence of the coated Pd on the electronic structure of Au nanoparticle, and compared the electronic structure of Au-20 cluster with that of Au10Pd10 (core/shell) cluster. Second, we studied SERS spectroscopy of pyridine on Au@Pd core/shell nanoparticles, which revealed the rate of static chemical enhancement and electromagnetic enhancement in the experimental reports. Third, the influence of the Pd shell thickness to the optical absorption of Au@Pd core/shell nanoparticles was investigated with generalized Mie theory. Fourth, we studied the influence of the shell thickness to the local electric field enhancement with 3D-FDTD method. The theoretical results reveal that the static chemical enhancement and electromagnetic enhancement are in the order of 10 and 10(3), respectively. These theoretical studies promote the deeper understanding of the electronic structure and optical absorption properties of Au@Pd, and the mechanisms for SERS of molecule adsorbed on Au@Pd.