Fast and green synthesis of silver nanoparticles/reduced graphene oxide composite as efficient surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrate for bacteria detection

Developing facile and environmentally friendly synthesis method to fabricate effective platforms for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) draws much attention in recent years. Herein, a fast and green method is developed to prepare silver nanoparticles/reduced graphene oxide (Ag NPs/rGO) composite, which exhibits favorable SERS activity in detecting bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). With high-loading and well-dispersed Ag NPs (average size of similar to 63 nm), the Ag NPs/rGO composite fabricated at a mass ratio of 3:1 between AgNO3 and GO presents the best SERS performance, which may be due to the optimal synergistic effect of electromagnetic enhancement originated from Ag NPs and chemical enhancement originated from rGO sheets. Furthermore, the detection sensitivity of the Ag NPs/rGO composite lowers to 1 x 10(5) CFU/cm(3). [GRAPHICS]