Plasmonic Nanoassemblies: Tentacles Beat Satellites for Boosting Broadband NIR Plasmon Coupling Providing a Novel Candidate for SERS and Photothermal Therapy

A distinct core ‐multitentacle nanoassembly is developed utilizing small gold nanoparticles (NPs) with limited plasmon resonance in the near‐infrared (NIR). 5 nm NPs assembled as tentacles are attached to 15 nm core using multiarm polymers. They provide an intense broadband absorbance throughout the NIR “opti cal biological window” over‐and‐above that of a core–satellite. Additionally, a strong surface‐enhanced Raman scattering enhancement makes them potential candidates for optical theranostics. AbstractOptical theranostic applications demand near ‐infrared (NIR) localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and maximized electric field at nanosurfaces and nanojunctions, aiding diagnosis via Raman or optoacoustic imaging, and photothermal‐based therapies. To this end, multiple permutations and combinations of plasmonic nanostructures and mol ecular “glues” or linkers are employed to obtain nanoassemblies, such as nanobranches and core–satellite morphologies. An advanced nanoassembly morphology comprising multiple linear tentacles anchored onto a spherical core is reported here. Importantly, this core‐multi‐tentacle‐nanoassem bly (CMT) benefits from numerous plasmonic interactions between multiple 5 nm gold nanoparticles (NPs) forming each tentacle as well as tentacle to core (15 nm) coupling. This results in an intense LSPR across the “biological optical window” of 650−1100 nm. It is shown that the combined intera ctions are responsible for...

Source: Small - February 28, 2020 Category: Nanotechnology Authors: Priyanka Dey, Tanveer A. Tabish, Sara Mosca, Francesca Palombo, Pavel Matousek, Nicholas Stone Tags: Full Paper Source Type: research