Sathyavathi Ravulapalli - KLEF, Hyderabad
RAVICHANDRA KORASAPATI - KLEF, HYDERABAD
Jyothi Lankipalli - School of Physics University of Hyderabad

We report an Environmental-friendly method for the synthesis of Au-Ag alloy nanoparticles (ANPs) by using Anethum graveolens fresh leaf extract as a reducing and stabilizing agent. The precursor solutions of Au (HAuCl۴: ۳H۲O), Ag (AgNO۳) and leaf extract were mixed by varying molar ratios and heated with continuous stirring at ۷۰℃ for an hour leads a formation of Au-Ag ANPs with different atomic compositions. The periodic observation of colour changes indicated the formation of Au-Ag ANPs and got confirmed by the measurement of UV-Vis spectroscopy. The synthesized Au-Ag ANPs were characterized for morphological and elemental composition using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) in conventional and scanning TEM (STEM) mode. The TEM image analysis shows that the synthesized Au-Ag ANPs were found to be in spherical shape with a broad size distribution with a mean size of ۲۳ ± ۱۸ nm. The energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectrometry in the STEM mode confirms the formation of Au-Ag ANPs . To show that these biosynthesized Au-Ag ANPs can be used as SERS (Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering) substrates, we carried out SERS studies using Crystal Violet (CV) and Rhodamine ۶G (R۶G) as test molecules by using ۵۱۴.۵ nm laser excitation wavelength. The detection level achieved was ۵۰µM of CV and R۶G, which would lead to exploring biosensing applications.

Crystal Violet (CV), Rhodamine ۶G, Scanning Tunnelling Electron Microscope (STEM)