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Optimizing Gold Nanoparticle Size and Shape for the Fabrication of SERS Substrates by Means of the Langmuir–Blodgett Technique

The Langmuir–Blodgett technique, in which a layer of nanoparticles is spread at the water/air interface and further transferred onto a solid support, is a versatile approach for the preparation of SERS substrates with a controllable arrangement of hotspots. In a previous work, we demonstrated that f...

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Autores principales: Tahghighi, Mohammad, Janner, Davide, Ignés-Mullol, Jordi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7696038/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33207593
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano10112264
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author Tahghighi, Mohammad
Janner, Davide
Ignés-Mullol, Jordi
author_facet Tahghighi, Mohammad
Janner, Davide
Ignés-Mullol, Jordi
author_sort Tahghighi, Mohammad
collection PubMed
description The Langmuir–Blodgett technique, in which a layer of nanoparticles is spread at the water/air interface and further transferred onto a solid support, is a versatile approach for the preparation of SERS substrates with a controllable arrangement of hotspots. In a previous work, we demonstrated that fine-tuning the lateral packing and subsequent seed growth of 10 nm gold nanoparticles led to a quasi-resonant enhanced in the SERS signal of a test analyte. Here, we explore further enhancements by modifying the size and shape of the spread gold nanoparticles in order to take advantage of the inherent interparticle repulsion mechanisms present at the interface. We show that the size of the used nanoparticles is also a determinant factor, which cannot be compensated by the subsequent electroless growth. We also show that, although the seeded growth leads to rough hotspots, the sensitivity can be optimized by self-assembling urchin-shaped nanoparticles, with a roughness that is fine-tuned a priori. Our results suggest an intriguing correlation between surface homogeneity and SERS signal enhancement, indicating that regular substrates will have the optimal performance.
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spelling pubmed-76960382020-11-29 Optimizing Gold Nanoparticle Size and Shape for the Fabrication of SERS Substrates by Means of the Langmuir–Blodgett Technique Tahghighi, Mohammad Janner, Davide Ignés-Mullol, Jordi Nanomaterials (Basel) Article The Langmuir–Blodgett technique, in which a layer of nanoparticles is spread at the water/air interface and further transferred onto a solid support, is a versatile approach for the preparation of SERS substrates with a controllable arrangement of hotspots. In a previous work, we demonstrated that fine-tuning the lateral packing and subsequent seed growth of 10 nm gold nanoparticles led to a quasi-resonant enhanced in the SERS signal of a test analyte. Here, we explore further enhancements by modifying the size and shape of the spread gold nanoparticles in order to take advantage of the inherent interparticle repulsion mechanisms present at the interface. We show that the size of the used nanoparticles is also a determinant factor, which cannot be compensated by the subsequent electroless growth. We also show that, although the seeded growth leads to rough hotspots, the sensitivity can be optimized by self-assembling urchin-shaped nanoparticles, with a roughness that is fine-tuned a priori. Our results suggest an intriguing correlation between surface homogeneity and SERS signal enhancement, indicating that regular substrates will have the optimal performance. MDPI 2020-11-16 /pmc/articles/PMC7696038/ /pubmed/33207593 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano10112264 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Tahghighi, Mohammad
Janner, Davide
Ignés-Mullol, Jordi
Optimizing Gold Nanoparticle Size and Shape for the Fabrication of SERS Substrates by Means of the Langmuir–Blodgett Technique
title Optimizing Gold Nanoparticle Size and Shape for the Fabrication of SERS Substrates by Means of the Langmuir–Blodgett Technique
title_full Optimizing Gold Nanoparticle Size and Shape for the Fabrication of SERS Substrates by Means of the Langmuir–Blodgett Technique
title_fullStr Optimizing Gold Nanoparticle Size and Shape for the Fabrication of SERS Substrates by Means of the Langmuir–Blodgett Technique
title_full_unstemmed Optimizing Gold Nanoparticle Size and Shape for the Fabrication of SERS Substrates by Means of the Langmuir–Blodgett Technique
title_short Optimizing Gold Nanoparticle Size and Shape for the Fabrication of SERS Substrates by Means of the Langmuir–Blodgett Technique
title_sort optimizing gold nanoparticle size and shape for the fabrication of sers substrates by means of the langmuir–blodgett technique
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7696038/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33207593
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano10112264
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