Cellular-Like Gold Nanofeet: Synthesis, Functionalization, and Surface Enhanced Fluorescence Detection for Mercury Contaminations

The novel cellular-like gold nanofeet (CGNF) with movable gold core, which are derived from gold/silver core shell nanorods, have been generated by galvanic reaction protocol at room temperature. The optical property based on localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) has been evaluated in comparison with solid gold nanofeet, suggesting that obviously high LSPR sensitivity of CGNF contributes to enhancing optical effect for detection of analytes. In contrast with superquenching properties of nanogold for fluorescence detection of pollutants, highly sensitive detection of heavy metal contaminations, e.g., mercury ions, have been implemented via DNA functionalized silica-coated CGNF on the basis of surface enhanced fluorescence (SEF) approach.