| AVS 54th International Symposium | |
| Plasmonics Topical Conference | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session PL-TuP |
| Session: | Plasmonics Poster Session |
| Presenter: | Y.-J. Lin, Illinois Institute of Technology |
| Authors: | S. Bishnoi, Illinois Institute of Technology Y.-J. Lin, Illinois Institute of Technology |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Gold-silica nanoshells are important materials for surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) based sensors. The individual particles have been found to have enhancements on the order of 1010 over normal Raman,1 preventing the need for the pre-aggregation of particles. The resulting sensors are significantly more reproducible than SERS sensors based on aggregated gold colloids. One challenge in the use of such particles for the creation of in-line Raman sensors lies in the immobilization of such particles to prevent long-term aggregation and other storage issues. To this end, we have used sol-gel methods to immobilize gold-silica nanoshells to create robust SERS based sensors. Using a protocol commonly used to immobilize proteins,2 we have created biologically friendly SERS sensors for the study of gold binding peptides and proteins. Specifically, by combining tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), methyltrimethoxysilicate (MTMS), phosphate buffer, and gold nanoparticles we have created sol-gels with reduced fluorescence and Raman backgrounds. Since organic solvents have been eliminated in the synthesis, these porous materials are ideal for studying the attachment of biological molecules to gold nanoparticles.
1 Jackson, J. B.; Halas, N. J. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2004, 101, 17930-17935.
2 Soyoun Kim, Youngdeuk Kim, Philseok Kim, Jeongmin Ha, Kyunyoung Kim, Mijin Sohn, Jin-San Yoo, Jungeun Lee, Jung-ah Kwon, and Kap No Lee. Anal. Chem. 2006, 78(21), 7392 -7396.