Silica-templated silver nanorods may lead to earlier disease diagnosis
Silica-templated silver nanorods may lead to earlier disease diagnosis lead image
Because of their unique chemical and physical properties, anisotropic noble metal nanoparticles have shown notable potential in biosensing, cellular imaging, and cancer-related therapies. Silver’s optical properties make it an attractive material for use in these applications. However, the widely accepted silver-nanorod-synthesis route using cetrimonium bromide raises questions of toxicity and difficulty in removal. Xu et al. investigated a more biocompatible silica template method.
Manufacturing highly monodispersed silver nanorods with intense longitudinal localized surface plasmon resonance response has proven extremely challenging. The research team triggered silver nanorod growth inside silica nanoshells without the use of any deleterious surfactants. The emission from luminescent materials is significantly amplified when placed near the metal nanoparticles.
“This is a new and exciting way to improve the sensitivity of fluorescence-based assays, which are often used in hospitals,” said Fang Xie.
The fluorescence enhancement was strongly dependent on the loading density of the silver nanorods, the degree of overlap between the plasmon resonance response, and the emission spectra of the dyes.
By changing the dimensions of the nanoshells, the growing silver particles can be tuned to rods of varying aspect ratios while finely controlling their plasmon resonance response from visible to near-infrared dyes. The silver nanorod solution also exhibits high stability under the protection of diethylamine.
“These low-cost silver nanorod substrates hold great potential for the development of ultra-sensitive fluorescence-based multiplexed immunoassay platforms for the early diagnosis of disease,” said Xie.
Source: “Significant quantum yield enhancement for near infrared fluorescence dyes by silica templated silver nanorods,” by Jiamin Xu, William Morton, Daniel Jones, Tanveer A. Tabish, Mary P. Ryan, and Fang Xie, Applied Physics Reviews (2022). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0082187 .
