Fabrication of gold nanoparticle pattern using imprinted hydrogen silsesquioxane pattern for surface-enhanced Raman scattering

This is the first report of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate fabrication using a combination of imprinted hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ: HSiO_3/2) patterns and self-assembly of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). To assemble the AuNPs inside the imprinted HSQ pattern, it is important to understand the interactions between AuNPs and AuNPs, and those between AuNPs and HSQ. The authors investigated the effects HSQ surface charges on the self-assembly of AuNPs. It was found that the negatively charged AuNPs were successfully assembled according to the geometry of the negatively charged HSQ pattern. In addition, it was shown that the SERS substrate fabricated from an HSQ consisting of an inorganic polymer was suitable for organic chemical analysis, by comparing it with a substrate fabricated using an organic polymer.     

Nanopillar-forest based surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates

In this work,nanopillar-forest based surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates were fabricated using a novel approach.The key technique of the approach is taking advantage of convexes on Poly-Si surfaces as support structures in sidewall technology.The tip-diameters of the fabricated nanopillars are from 5 to 10 nm,heights are of several microns,and density of the nanopillar-based forests is around 20/μm2.In these nanopillar forests,there are plenty of nanoscale gaps.When covered with a thin layer of noble metal,the nanopillar forests exhibit a high SERS-active capability.Primary measurement results demonstrate that the nanopillar-forest based SERS substrates have an enhancement factor of an order of 4.62×106.It is expected that such SERS substrates may have applications in biological monitoring and chemical detection.     

Droplet microfluidic preparation of au nanoparticles-coated chitosan microbeads for flow-through surface-enhanced Raman scattering detection

An integrated microfluidic device was fabricated to enable on-chip droplet forming, trapping, fusing, shrinking, reaction and producing functional microbeads for a flow-through single bead-based molecule detection. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) force was used to transport target polymer droplets into different predefined microwells, where the droplets were fused through electrocoalescence to form a new one with a desired diameter. In a continuous water loss process with water diffusion to oil phase, the polymer droplet was shrunken and solidified to form a polymer microbead. For a demonstration, Au nanoparticles-coated chitosan microbeads were in situ fabricated through droplet trapping, fusion and shrinking, followed by synthesis of Au nanoparticles on the microbead surface via a photoreduction process. The produced Au nanoparticle/chitosan microbead embedded in the microwell resulted in a highly sensitive, flow-through surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection of Rhodamine 6G (R6G). This work successfully demonstrates an integrated droplet based lab-on-a chip and its application to fabricate an extremely high-throughput single bead based detection platform.     

Characterization of composite nanoparticles using an improved light scattering program for coated spheres

The objectives of this paper are twofold. First, the paper developed an improved algorithm to perform light scattering calculations by coated spheres. The improved algorithm was implemented in FORTRAN90 as a subroutine to allow flexible application of the code. Second, the new program was applied to the characterization of composite aluminum nanoparticles. In this application, multiple elements of the Mueller scattering matrix were measured at multiple angles to infer the properties of the nanoparticles, including the size distribution function and the thickness of the coating. The new program played a key role in the fitting of the measured data, and this application demonstrated the advantages of the new program in situations that demand high efficiency and reliability.

Program summary

Program title: CMIECatalogue identifier: AEFX_v1_0Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEFX_v1_0.htmlProgram obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. IrelandLicensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.htmlNo. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 1065No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 12 933Distribution format: tar.gzProgramming language: FORTRAN90/95Computer: Any machine running standard FORTRAN90/95Operating system: Windows XP (Intel FORTRAN compiler 9.1)RAM: 1-100 MbyteClassification: 16.7, 18Nature of problem: Among various scientific and engineering applications, it is highly desirable to have an efficient, reliable, and flexible program to perform scattering calculations for coated spherical particles. Though several programs are publicly available and can perform such calculations, they are designed for more complicated scatterers (non-spherical, multilayered particles, etc.). As a result, their efficiency and reliability are usually not satisfactory when applied to coated spheres. Therefore, this paper aims at developing an improved program to provide efficient and reliable scattering calculations for coated spheres. Such virtues were demonstrated to be invaluable in applications where scattering calculations need to be performed for a great number of times over a wide range of conditions.Solution method: A new algorithm is developed to directly calculate the pre-factor of the scattering coefficients. This new technique provides reliable calculation of the pre-factor for arbitrarily large size parameters, and offers better control of the termination of the calculation. Based on this algorithm, an improved program was developed to perform light scattering calculations by coated spheres.Restrictions: Only applicable to single scattering, single layer coating, and unity permeabilityRunning time: Several seconds-several minutes     

Vertically aligned ZnO nanorods and graphene hybrid architectures for high-sensitive flexible gas sensors

We present the fabrication and characterization of new type of flexible gas sensors, composed mainly of a bottom ZnO conductive layer on metal foil, vertically aligned ZnO nanorod channel, and graphene-based top conductive electrode. Multiple cycling tests demonstrated the ZnO nanorods (NRs) and graphene (Gr) hybrid architectures accommodated the flexural deformation without mechanical or electrical failure for bending radius below 0.8 cm under the repeated bending and releasing up to 100 times. In addition, the hybrid architectures fabricated on glass substrate showed good optical transmittance larger than ∼70% for visible light, indicating potential application in transparent devices. Furthermore, our gas sensors demonstrated the ppm level detection of ethanol gas vapor with the sensitivity (resistance in air/resistance in target gas) as high as ∼9 for 10 ppm ethanol.     

Optofluidic device for ultra-sensitive detection of proteins using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

An optofluidic device is reported in this paper that can highly improve the robustness of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection and provide fingerprint information of proteins with a concentration in the nanogram per liter range within minutes. Moreover, the conformational change of protein can also be obtained using this device. Fabricated by standard photolithography processes, the optofluidic device has a step microfluidic–nanofluidic structure, which provides robust SERS detection. The sensitivity of the device is investigated using insulin and albumin as target analytes at a concentration of 0.9 ng/L. The ability to detect conformational changes of proteins using this technology is also shown by probing these analytes before and after their denaturation.     

Large-area Raman enhancement substrates using spontaneous dewetting of gold films and silver nanoparticles deposition

We present a cost-effective method for making large-area surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates by using spontaneous dewetting of ultrathin gold film. The dewetting of 5-nm-thick gold film formed high-density gold islands ranged from 40 nm to 80 nm. The measured SERS signal was 5 times stronger than synthesised gold nanoparticles. The SERS signals can be further increased by depositing small silver nanoparticles on the dewetted film. The experimental results showed 5-nm-thick silver coating increased SERS signals up to 10 times. The calculations by finite-difference time-domain method verified such SERS enhancement originated from enhanced electric fields between gold islands and silver nanoparticles. In the application, we demonstrated an all-optical measurement of pH values in microfluidic devices by using SERS signals of para-mercaptobenzoic acid.     

Surface plasmon resonance scattering and absorption of biofunctionalized gold nanoparticles for targeted cancer imaging and laser therapy

The localized surface plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles enables them to be excellent light scattering sensing reagents and efficient lignt-heat convertors for potential diagnostics and therapeutics.In this work,gold nanoparticles of 15 nm in size were synthesized and conjugated with a kind of arginine-glycine-aspartic acid peptide(RGD)to target the cancer cells.Under a conventional dark field microscope,the scattering images from normal and cancer cells are very different.Only a few of gold nanopartic...     

Direct boundary integral equation method for electromagnetic scattering by partly coated dielectric objects

We present a new variational direct boundary integral equation approach for solving the scattering and transmission problem for dielectric objects partially coated with a PEC layer. The main idea is to use the electromagnetic Calderón projector along with transmission conditions for the electromagnetic fields. This leads to a symmetric variational formulation which lends itself to Galerkin discretization by means of divergence-conforming discrete surface currents. A wide array of numerical experiments confirms the efficacy of the new method. Dedicated to George C. Hsiao on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Communicated by: W. L. Wendland     

Implementation of substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for continuous analysis in an optofluidic device

The fabrication of substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), which offer high enhancement factors as well as spatially homogeneous distribution of the enhancement, plays an important role for expanding the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy to a powerful quantitative and non-invasive measurement technique. In this paper, a method for the fabrication of capable SERS-active substrates by laser treatment of gold films supported on glass with single 351?nm UV-laser pulses is presented. Resulting nanometer scaled structures show enhancement factors of up to 10⁶ with very high spatial reproducibility for a monolayer of benzenethiol. A method for integration of these substrates into PDMS microchannels is shown. A technique for the generation of a simple mold master for PDMS replication is presented. Rhodamine 6G is used as model system to demonstrate continuous measurements on a solid SERS-active substrate in a microchannel. The label-free detection of the biological molecule albumin is improved by an order of magnitude.     

Plane wave scattering by a circular PEMC cylinder coated with anisotropic media

Analytical solution of plane wave scattering by a circular PEMC (Perfect Electromagnetic Conductor) cylinder coated with anisotropic media was presented in this article. When referred to principal axes (ρ, ?,z) in the anisotropic region, both permittivity and permeability tensors were biaxial and diagonal; so, the radial Eigen‐functions were complex ordered Bessel's functions. The monostatic and bistatic scattering cross‐sections of a PEMC cylinder coated with both of anisotropic DPS (double‐positive) medium with positive values of relative permittivity and elements of permeability tensors and anisotropic DNG (double‐negative) metamaterial with negative values of relative permittivity and permeability elements of tensors were calculated. The validity of the presented relations was achieved by comparing the results of specific cases of isotropic coated cylinder and anisotropic coated perfect electric conductor cylinder with those of previously published methods. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2013.     

Spatially resolved temperature mapping of electrothermal actuators by surface Raman scattering

In this paper, we report spatially resolved temperature profiles along the legs of working V-shaped electrothermal (ET) actuators using a surface Raman scattering technique. The Raman probe provides nonperturbing optical data with a spatial resolution of 1.2 /spl mu/m, which is required to observe the 3-/spl mu/m-wide actuator beams. A detailed uncertainty analysis reveals that our Raman thermometry of polycrystalline silicon is performed with fidelity of /spl plusmn/10 to 11 K when the peak location of the Stokes-shifted optical phonon signature is used as an indicator of temperature. This level of uncertainty is sufficient for temperature mapping of many working thermal MEMS devices which exhibit characteristic temperature differences of several hundred Kelvins. To our knowledge, these are the first quantitative and spatially resolved temperature data available for thermal actuator structures. This new temperature data set can be used for validation of actuator thermal design models and these new results are compared with finite-difference simulations of actuator thermal performance.     

基于金纳米颗粒免疫凝集的压电传感技术快速检测人血清免疫球蛋白IgG

发展了一种利用金纳米颗粒免疫凝集的压电传感技术用于人血清免疫球蛋白IgG的简单、快速、高灵敏检测.以金纳米颗粒替代传统胶乳标记羊抗人IgG诊断血清(抗IgG),利用石英晶体微天平(QCM)直接灵敏响虚因金纳米颗粒免疫凝集而引起溶液的非质量参数(密度、粘度等)的变化.考察了pH值、离子强度和抗IgG-金纳米颗粒浓度对免疫凝集反应的影响,并进行了质控实验.结果表明,该传感技术毋需固定活性组分,可快速榆测浓度下限0.38μg/mL的免疫球蛋白IgC.定量能力与经典ELISA法相接近,可基本满足临床疾病诊断的生化检测要求.     

Parylene-based implantable Pt-black coated flexible 3-D hemispherical microelectrode arrays for improved neural interfaces

In implantable medical systems, low-impedance electrode-tissue interface is important for maintaining signal quality for recording and effective charge transfer for stimulation. In this paper, we propose a novel hemispherical biocompatible and flexible microelectrode arrays (MEAs) which were fabricated by the process of micro electrical mechanical system (MEMS). Compared with conventional planar microelectrodes, the interface impedance of hemispherical microelectrodes decreased due to their increased surface area. Parylene C thin film with good biocompatibility and flexibility was chemical vapor deposited as packaging material for decreasing nerve tissue damage. Pt-black coatings were electroplated by applying current pulses in H₂PtCl₆ solution on electrode sites for the further decrease of interface impedance. Moreover, the geometrical and electrical properties of these MEAs were demonstrated by using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and an electrochemical workstation. Experimental results showed that the interface impedance decreased by about 34% compared with conventional planar microelectrodes, and significantly decreased by 84% with Pt-black coatings on electrode sites compared with those uncoated microelectrodes.     

Toluidine blue modified self-assembled silica gel coated gold electrode as biosensor for NADH

A toluidine blue modified gold electrode was constructed using self-assembled silica gel technique. Firstly, toluidine blue was encapsulated within 3D network of silica self-assembly monolayer on the surface of gold electrode. Secondly, another layer of silica sol was further assembled to protect from leaching of mediator or possible contamination. The electrochemical characteristics of toluidine blue immobilized within self-assembled silica gel were studied in detail. The modified electrode was applied for electrochemical oxidation of NADH with satisfactory results.     

Conductimetric immunosensor for atrazine detection based on antibodies labelled with gold nanoparticles

A novel conductimetric immunosensor for atrazine detection has been designed and developed. This immunosensor is mainly based on antibodies labelled with gold nanoparticles. Additionally, the immunosensor consists of an array of two coplanar non-passivated interdigitated metallic μ-electrodes (IDμE) and immunoreagents specifically developed to detect this pesticide. The chemical recognition layer was covalent immobilized on the interdigital space. Immunochemical detection of the concentration of atrazine is achieved by a competitive reaction that occurs before the inclusion of the labelled antibodies. It is shown that the gold nanoparticles provide an amplification of the conductive signal and hence makes possible to detect atrazine by means of simple DC measurements.The conductimetric immunosensor and its biofunctionalization steps have been characterized by chemical affinity methods and impedance spectroscopy.This work describes the immunosensor structure, fabrication, physico-chemical and analytical characterization, and the immunosensor response using conductivity measurements. The immunosensor developed detects atrazine with limits of detection in the order of 0.1–1 μg L⁻¹, far below the maximum residue level (MRL) (100 μg L⁻¹) established by European Union (EU) for residues of this herbicide in the wine.Although in this paper the competitive reaction occurs in buffer, an initial study of the wine matrix effect is also described.     

基于“树枝状”信号放大的电化学DNA生物传感器研究

发展了一种基于"树枝状"信号放大的电化学生物传感器用于DNA的检测。该传感器利用两种DNA功能化的纳米金颗粒,通过两次"三明治"杂交,在电极表面形成"树枝"状结构,从而实现DNA的定量检测。首先通过共价交联方法获得巯基DNA1和DNA2修饰的两种纳米金颗粒,其中DNA1和DNA2与目标cDNA部分互补。然后,修饰在金电极上的捕获探针DNA1与目标cDNA分子及巯基DNA2修饰的纳米金颗粒(DNA2-AuNPs)形成第一个"三明治"杂交结构,实现一次放大检测。接着,DNA2-AuNPs又可与cDNA、巯基DNA1修饰的纳米金颗粒(DNA1-AuNPs)形成第二个"三明治"杂交结构,实现二次放大检测。这种"树枝状"放大信号的方法的检测限是0.13pmol/L,相对仅利用纳米金颗粒放大的方法而言,其检测限降低了4倍。并且,该传感器具有较好的识别碱基错配的能力。     

Aptamer biosensor for label-free impedance spectroscopy detection of thrombin based on gold nanoparticles

This paper presents a simple electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) aptasensor based on an anti-thrombin-aptamer as a molecular recognition element. Improvement in sensitivity was achieved by utilizing gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), which were self-assembled on the surface of a bare electrode by using 1,6-Hexanedithiol as a medium. To quantify the amount of thrombin, changes in the interfacial electron transfer resistance (R_et) of the aptasensor were monitored using the redox couple of an [Fe(CN)₆]^3−/4− probe. The plot of (Reti−Ret₀)/Ret₀ against the logarithm of thrombin concentration is linear with over the range from 0.1 nM to 30 nM with a detection limit of 0.013 nM. Meanwhile, the packing density of aptamers was determined by cyclic voltammetric (CV) studies of redox cations (e.g., [Ru(NH₃)₆]³⁺) which were electrostatically bound to the DNA phosphate backbones. The results indicate that the total amount of aptamer probes immobilized on the gold nanoparticle surface is sixfold higher than that on the bare electrode. The aptasensor also showed good selectivity for thrombin without being affected by the presence of other proteins.     

基于纳米金颗粒放大的电化学传感器用于三聚氰胺的检测

三聚氰胺与胸腺嘧啶（T）之间能够通过三个氢键结合,以富T的DNA探针为识别元件,结合DNA修饰的纳米金颗粒放大技术,以电活性物质钌胺作为信号分子,发展了一种高灵敏检测三聚氰胺的电化学传感器,该传感器具有良好的特异性和灵敏度,检测下限低至0．5nmol／L。     

包裹有机链的银纳米粒子一维二维阵列的分子模拟研究

通过含贵金属纳米粒子的一维、二维有序阵列,可以制备纳米线和纳米膜。利用Materials Studio软件构建了由87个银原子内核化学吸附22根含苯不对称硫醚链(TTOE)形成的含银纳米粒子,在不同的间距条件下构建一维和二维阵列模型。首先考察了模型中链及苯环间相关关系受温度及阵列参数的影响情况。相关性由相关性判据界定。经分析,选用了平行次序参数大于0.6、垂直次序参数小于-0.3以及苯环质心间距小于1.0nm的一组判据。相关性分析结果表明,当温度升高至600K时,所有11个模型中链及苯环间相关性几近消失,说明较高温度下,此纳米粒子及其阵列可能不太适合作为纳米电子器件使用。在升温过程中,间距为4.8nm的一维纳米粒子阵列相关性保持较好,而二维则出现在较大间距情况下。其次,考察了模型中TTOE链平均头尾距(可视为链长,反映链伸展情况)受温度及阵列参数影响情况。模拟结果表明,较低温度下链的平均头尾距随纳米粒子间距减小而增加,而在较高温度下链则呈现出不同的伸展情况,转换区间在(500～600)K之间,这与链及苯环间相关性几近消失的区间相一致。产生这一现象应该是链包裹层能量效应和空间效应共同作用的结果。