Plasmon-enhanced vibrational spectroscopy, including surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (SEIRA) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), has attracted great attention in molecular sensing and nano-spectroscopy. In this work, we present a facile in situ-controlled method for the chemical synthesis of patchy SiO2@Au core-shell nanoparticles with multiple plasmonic nanogaps. The multiple sizes and shapes of Au nano-islands on patchy Au nanoshells and their plasmonic coupling exhibit broadband resonances ranging from the near infrared (NIR) region to the middle infrared (MIR) region, making patchy Au particles ensemble suitable for both SEIRA and SERS applications. In the SEIRA application, we demonstrate in situ and real-time monitoring of monolayer of reduced glutathione molecules (GSH) adsorbed on the plasmonic Au surface. By using GSH as the molecular linker, we also demonstrate in situ detection of trace amount of mercuric ions in water at nanomolar level. In the SERS application, we show the applicability of patchy Au nanoparticles for SERS at 785 nm excitation.
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