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Improving SERS uniformity by isolating hot spots in gold rod-in-shell nanoparticles

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Abstract

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) tags show ultrasensitivity and multiplexing abilities due to strong and characteristic Raman signals and therefore can be utilized as optical labeling agents similar to fluorescent dyes and quantum dots for biosensing and bioimaging. However, SERS tags have the difficulty to realize quantitative analysis due to the uniformity and reproducibility issue. In this work, we have reported on a new type of SERS tag called Au rod-in-shell (RIS) gap-enhanced Raman tag (GERT). With the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and optical absorbance measurements, we have demonstrated the subnanometer sized gap junctions inside the RIS GERTs. SERS measurements and FDTD calculations show that the core–shell subnanometer gap geometry in the RIS GERTs not only generates strong SERS hot spots but also isolates SERS hot spots by Au shells to avoid the influence when the particle aggregates form, therefore showing better SERS uniformity and stronger SERS intensity than normal Au nanorods. Those RIS NPs exhibit great potential as the labeling agents for SERS-based bioimaging and biosensing applications.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21375087 and 81571763) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (No. YG2014MS53 and SJTU-KUL Bilateral Program) for their financial support.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. School of Biomedical Engineering & Med-X Research Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Huashan Road, Shanghai, 200030, People’s Republic of China

      Shanshan Wang, Zhonghui Liu, Hong Xu & Jian Ye

    2. Department of Physics, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, 3001, Heverlee, Belgium

      Carmen Bartic

    3. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Gynecologic Oncology, School of Medicine, Ren Ji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

      Jian Ye

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    1. Shanshan Wang
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    2. Zhonghui Liu
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    3. Carmen Bartic
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    4. Hong Xu
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    5. Jian Ye
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    Correspondence to Hong Xu or Jian Ye.

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    Shanshan Wang and Zhonghui Liu have equally contributed to this work.

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    Wang, S., Liu, Z., Bartic, C. et al. Improving SERS uniformity by isolating hot spots in gold rod-in-shell nanoparticles. J Nanopart Res 18, 246 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-016-3546-3

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