Angle-Resolved Plasmonic Properties of Single Gold Nanorod Dimers

Through wet-chemical assembly methods, gold nanorods were placed close to each other and formed a dimer with a gap distance *1 nm, and hence degenerated plasmonic dipole modes of individual nanorods coupled together to produce hybridized bonding and antibonding resonance modes. Previous studies using a condenser for illumination result in averaged signals over all excitation angles. By exciting an individual dimer obliquely at different angles, we demonstrate that these two new resonance modes are highly tunable and sensitive to the angle between the excitation polarization and the dimer orientation, which follows cos2 u dependence. Moreover, for dimer structures with various structure angles, the resonance wavelengths as well as the refractive index sensitivities were found independent of the structure angle. Calculated angle-resolved plasmonic properties are in good agreement with the measurements. The assembled nanostructures investigated here are important for fundamental researches as well as potential applications when they are used as building blocks in plasmon-based optical and optoelectronic devices.

Controllable Biosynthesis and Properties of Gold Nanoplates Using Yeast Extract

Biosynthesis of gold nanostructures has drawn increasing concerns because of its green and sustainable synthetic process. However, biosynthesis of gold nanoplates is still a challenge because of the expensive source and difficulties of controllable formation of morphology and size. Herein, one-pot biosynthesis of gold nanoplates is proposed, in which cheap yeast was extracted as a green precursor. The morphologies and sizes of the gold nanostructures can be controlled via varying the pH value of the biomedium. In acid condition, gold nanoplates with side length from 1300 ± 200 to 300 ± 100 nm and height from 18 to 15 nm were obtained by increasing the pH value. Whereas, in neutral or basic condition, only gold nanoflowers and nanoparticles were obtained. It was determined that organic molecules, such as succinic acid, lactic acid, malic acid, and glutathione, which are generated in metabolism process, played important role in the reduction of gold ions. Besides, it was found that the gold nanoplates exhibited plasmonic property with prominent dipole infrared resonance in near-infrared region, indicating their potential in surface plasmon-enhanced applications, such as bioimaging and photothermal therapy.

Rapid Seedless Synthesis of Gold Nanoplates with Microscaled Edge Length in a High Yield and Their Application in SERS

We report a facile and reproducible approach toward rapid seedless synthesis of single crystalline gold nanoplates with edge length on the order of microns.The reaction is carried out by reducing gold ions with ascorbic acid in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide(CTAB).Reaction temperature and molar ratio of CTAB/Au are critical for the formation of gold nanoplates in a high yield,which are,respectively,optimized to be 85 °C and 6.The highest yield that can be achieved is 60 % at the optimized condition.The synthesis to achieve the microscaled gold nanoplates can be finished in less than 1 h under proper reaction conditions.Therefore,the reported synthesis approach is a time-and costeffective one.The gold nanoplates were further employed as the surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates and investigated individually.Interestingly,only those adsorbed with gold nanoparticles exhibit pronounced Raman signals of probe molecules,where a maximum enhancement factor of 1.7 9 10~7 was obtained.The obtained Raman enhancement can be ascribed to the plasmon coupling between the gold nanoplate and the nanoparticle adsorbed onto it.