The adsorption structure and mechanism of 4,4'-bipyridine (BiPy) on gold nanoparticle surfaces has been investigated by means of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The aromatic ring of BiPy appeared to assume a perpendicular orientation with respect to the gold surface from the presence of the ν(CH) band at ~3060cm - 1 . The SERS intensities of several vibrational modes of BiPy on Au were found to vary as the bulk concentration. The SERS intensities for BiPy on Au could be ascribed to both the electromagnetic (EM) and charge transfer (CT) enhancement mechanism.