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Silica-coated Au/Ag nanorods with tunable surface plasmon bands for nanoplasmonics with single particles

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Abstract

We present the synthesis and analysis of silica-coated Au/Ag bimetallic nanorods with controlled surface plasmon bands. Depending on the thickness of Ag shell deposited on the Au nanorod surface, there is a blue-shift on the longitudinal surface plasmon band of Au nanorods, which can be expressed by an approximate formula derived from the absorption profile of light in Ag films using finite difference time domain simulations. The subsequent coating of silica shell not only enhances the stability of the Au/Ag bimetallic nanorods but also provides a mesoporous host for optically active species. Minute red-shifts of the longitudinal resonance mode, induced by stepwise increased silica shell volumes, are shown. Application as carrier for fluorescent rhodamine B molecules is demonstrated by photoluminescence analysis. On the single-particle level, dark field microscopy of Au/Ag-silica nanorods was finally employed. This introduces a route towards revealing the relation between structure, shape, and optical (plasmonic) properties of complex composite metal particles as well as fabrication strategies for nanoassemblies of tailored structures in the field of nanoplasmonics.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge financial support by DFG through project IQuOSuPla and SFB 951 (HIOS). S.W. thanks the State Scholarship Fund of the China Scholarship Council (CSC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Soft Matter and Functional Materials, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, 14109, Berlin, Germany

    Shuang Wu, Julian Kaiser, Matthias Ballauff & Yan Lu

  2. Nanooptik (NAO), Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 12489, Berlin, Germany

    Andreas W. Schell, Thomas Aichele, Stefan Schietinger & Oliver Benson

  3. Institute for Heterogeneous Materials Systems, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, 14109, Berlin, Germany

    Michael Lublow

  4. Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 12489, Berlin, Germany

    Frank Polzer & Matthias Ballauff

  5. Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy, 12489, Berlin, Germany

    Sergei Kühn

  6. State-Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 200237, Shanghai, China

    Shuang Wu & Xuhong Guo

Authors
  1. Shuang Wu
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  2. Andreas W. Schell
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  3. Michael Lublow
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  4. Julian Kaiser
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  10. Oliver Benson
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  11. Matthias Ballauff
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  12. Yan Lu
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Correspondence to Yan Lu.

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Wu, S., Schell, A.W., Lublow, M. et al. Silica-coated Au/Ag nanorods with tunable surface plasmon bands for nanoplasmonics with single particles. Colloid Polym Sci 291, 585–594 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-012-2760-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-012-2760-5

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