4.6 Article

Biological Photonic Crystal-Enhanced Plasmonic Mesocapsules: Approaching Single-Molecule Optofluidic-SERS Sensing

Journal

ADVANCED OPTICAL MATERIALS
Volume 7, Issue 13, Pages -

Publisher

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH
DOI: 10.1002/adom.201900415

Keywords

optofluidic devices; photonic crystals; plasmonic mesocapsules; surface-enhanced Raman scattering

Funding

  1. National Institutes of Health [1R21DA0437131]
  2. National Science Foundation [1701329]
  3. United States Department of Agriculture [2017-67021-26606]

Ask authors/readers for more resources

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensing in microfluidic devices, namely optofluidic-SERS, suffers an intrinsic tradeoff between mass transport and hot spot density, both of which are required for ultrasensitive detection. To overcome this compromise, photonic crystal-enhanced plasmonic mesocapsules are synthesized, utilizing diatom biosilica decorated with in-situ growth silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs). In the optofluidic-SERS testing of this study, 100x higher enhancement factors and more than 1,000x better detection limit are achieved compared with traditional colloidal Ag NPs, the improvement of which is attributed to unique properties of the mesocapsules. First, the porous diatom biosilica frustules serve as carrier capsules for high density Ag NPs that form high density plasmonic hot-spots. Second, the submicron-pores embedded in the frustule walls not only create a large surface-to-volume ratio allowing for effective analyte capture, but also enhance the local optical field through the photonic crystal effect. Last, the mesocapsules provide effective mixing with analytes as they are flowing inside the microfluidic channel. The reported mesocapsules achieve single molecule detection of Rhodamine 6G in microfluidic devices and are further utilized to detect 1 x 10(-9) m of benzene and chlorobenzene compounds in tap water with near real-time response, which successfully overcomes the constraint of traditional optofluidic sensing.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.6
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available