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Nano Research 2018, 11(5): 2379-2391 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1859-x
Research Article | Issue | Published: 12 May 2018

Surface-floating gold nanorod super-aggregates with macroscopic uniformity

Show Author's Information Abdul R. Ferhan1,  Youju Huang1,  Anirban Dandapat1,  Dong-Hwan Kim2( )
School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University62 Nanyang Drive 637457Singapore
School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan UniversityGyeonggi-do 16419Republic of Korea
Keywords:
nanocomposites, nanoparticle, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), polymer brush
Cite this article:
Ferhan AR, Huang Y, Dandapat A, et al. Surface-floating gold nanorod super-aggregates with macroscopic uniformity. Nano Research, 2018, 11(5): 2379-2391. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1859-x
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

We present a simple method for obtaining high-density two- and threedimensional assemblies of gold nanorods (AuNRs) on polymer brush, referred to as "surface-floating super-aggregates", with uniform distribution spanning macroscopic distances. This was achieved via the single-step immersion of a poly(oligo ethylene glycol methacrylate) brush-containing substrate in a AuNR solution without any form of functionalization. Owing to extensive macroscale plasmonic coupling, we observed for the first time the gradual evolution of a unique sharp peak in addition to the transverse and longitudinal peaks, in this case, in the near-infrared (NIR) region. We also highlight the dynamic nature of these surface-floating super-aggregates, in which the AuNRs spread out when immersed in solution and collapse when dried to facilitate the access of probe molecules for biosensing applications. As a proof of concept, the surface-floating super-aggregates were used for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, with which we detected rhodamine 6G at as low as sub-femtomolar concentrations. Owing to the excellent large-area uniform coverage and extreme simplicity of the fabrication method, such AuNR assemblies can easily be mass-produced and incorporated into cheap biosensors suitable for consumer use in the near future.


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About this article

Surface-floating gold nanorod super-aggregates with macroscopic uniformity

Show Author's information Abdul R. Ferhan1, Youju Huang1, Anirban Dandapat1, Dong-Hwan Kim2( )
School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University62 Nanyang Drive 637457Singapore
School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan UniversityGyeonggi-do 16419Republic of Korea

Abstract

We present a simple method for obtaining high-density two- and threedimensional assemblies of gold nanorods (AuNRs) on polymer brush, referred to as "surface-floating super-aggregates", with uniform distribution spanning macroscopic distances. This was achieved via the single-step immersion of a poly(oligo ethylene glycol methacrylate) brush-containing substrate in a AuNR solution without any form of functionalization. Owing to extensive macroscale plasmonic coupling, we observed for the first time the gradual evolution of a unique sharp peak in addition to the transverse and longitudinal peaks, in this case, in the near-infrared (NIR) region. We also highlight the dynamic nature of these surface-floating super-aggregates, in which the AuNRs spread out when immersed in solution and collapse when dried to facilitate the access of probe molecules for biosensing applications. As a proof of concept, the surface-floating super-aggregates were used for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, with which we detected rhodamine 6G at as low as sub-femtomolar concentrations. Owing to the excellent large-area uniform coverage and extreme simplicity of the fabrication method, such AuNR assemblies can easily be mass-produced and incorporated into cheap biosensors suitable for consumer use in the near future.

Keywords: nanocomposites, nanoparticle, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), polymer brush

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 05 June 2017
Revised: 10 September 2017
Accepted: 20 September 2017
Published: 12 May 2018
Issue date: May 2018

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer‐Verlag GmbH Germany 2017

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (No. NRF-2016R1A2B4007209).

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