Controlled synthesis of Au-Fe3O4 hybrid hollow spheres with excellent SERS activity and catalytic properties

Au-Fe3O4 hybrid hollow spheres have been successfully synthesized by a one-pot process via the hydrothermal treatment of FeCl3, HAuCl4, citrate, urea, and polyacrylamide (PAM). The amount of Au nanoparticles located in the hybrid hollow spheres can be tuned by changing the molar ratio of Au/Fe precursors. A possible synthetic mechanism of the Au-Fe3O4 hybrid hollow spheres has been proposed. The obtained hybrids exhibit not only a superior surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensitivity, but also an excellent catalytic activity. The detection limit of the Au-Fe3O4 hybrid hollow spheres (the Au/Fe molar ratio is 0.2, Au-Fe3O4-0.2) for R6G can reach up to 10(-10) M, which can meet the required concentration level for ultratrace detection of analytes using SERS. Furthermore, the catalytic experiments of the Au-Fe3O4-0.2 hybrid hollow spheres demonstrate that the model of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) molecules can be degraded within 3 min and the catalytic activity can be recovered without sharp activity loss in six runs, which indicates their superior catalytic degradation activity. The reason may be due to the highly efficient partial charge transfer between Au and Fe3O4 at the nanoscale interface. The results indicate that the bifunctional Au-Fe3O4 hybrid hollow spheres can serve as promising materials in trace detection and industrial waste water treatment.