Excellent and recyclable surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates were fabricated via a one-step route: reducing gold ions to Au nanoparticles with silicon-hydrogen bond and assembling them in-situ on the Si wafer. Gold nanoparticles with the average size of 22 nm were epitaxially grown and uniformly assembled. The substrate exhibited excellent surface-enhanced Raman effect in the low concentration detection (1 x 10(-10) M) of Rhodamine 6G with relative standard deviation of <20%, and sustained stable enhancement efficiency in the recycle usage. The substrates were also employed to detect Sudan I dye with distinguished sensitivity and uniformity. More significantly, these substrates kept Au nanoparticles from growing larger during the Raman detection, compared with the conventional substrates, indicating it was a meaningful possibility for the practical applications. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.