Innovative Plasmonic Platforms for Advanced Molecular Sensing

用于先进分子传感的创新等离子体平台

• 批准号: RGPIN-2016-04202
• 负责人: Brosseau, Christa
• 金额: $ 2.62万
• 依托单位: Saint Mary's University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=747800
• 关键词: Innovative; Plasmonic; Platforms; Advanced; Molecular

The present research proposal seeks to focus on an area of nanotechnology termed plasmonics. The field of plasmonics relies on the unique optical and electronic effects observed when certain nanoscale metals, such as the coinage metals, interact with incident electric fields, such as the electric field component of light. Such interaction generates what are termed surface plasmons, which can be either confined to the surface or can propagate along the surface of a nanometal, depending on its size and dimensions. These surface plasmons have remarkable attributes, most notably the ability to harvest and manipulate light at the nanoscale, leading to highly sensitive chemical sensing and unprecedented future developments in near-field optical microscopy and plasmonic circuitry. Such advanced materials have an enormous range of possible and demonstrated applications, ranging from enhanced solar-energy conversion to superlenses and optical cloaking. The research program outlined herein revolves around three main themes related to advanced molecular sensing using innovative plasmonic platforms: (i) enhanced sensitivity (ii) improved selectivity and (iii) future sustainability; these areas are summarized below.(i) Enhanced sensitivity. While theoretical studies have demonstrated that the excellent light-manipulation of plasmonic nanoparticles should allow for single molecule level detection; routine evidence of such detection limits is lacking. A solution to this problem lies in the ability to not only fabricate nanoparticles with excellent monodispersity in terms of size and shape, but also in the ability to fabricate assemblies of such structures in a desired configuration over large surface areas with minimal cost. Our approach to overcome these issues will be to explore several strategies including layer-by-layer deposition, bioscaffolding and plasmonic metamolecular arrays for creating novel plasmonic platforms. (ii) Enhanced selectivity. One problem that continually plagues advances in plasmonic sensing is the non-specific interaction of non-target analytes with the sensor surface. Our approach will be to expand on our exploratory work in the field of aptasensors for target analyte detection. In addition, we will explore the extent to which electrochemical surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) can be used to enhance selectivity. iii) Future sustainability. Current plasmonic metals, such as Au and Ag, suffer from the disadvantage of high cost, especially for gold, as well as limited long term availability, especially for silver. As part of this program, we plan to explore the use of copper and aluminum nanoparticles for plasmonic applications. Issues associated with the synthesis and stability of such nanostructures will be circumvented using methods such as ionic liquid stabilized nanoparticle synthesis and electrochemical deposition.

目前的研究计划旨在重点关注称为等离激元学的纳米技术领域。等离子体激元领域依赖于当某些纳米级金属（例如造币金属）与入射电场（例如光的电场分量）相互作用时观察到的独特的光学和电子效应。这种相互作用会产生所谓的表面等离子体，它可以限制在纳米金属的表面，也可以沿着纳米金属的表面传播，具体取决于纳米金属的大小和尺寸。这些表面等离子体激元具有显着的属性，最显着的是在纳米尺度上捕获和操纵光的能力，从而导致高度灵敏的化学传感以及近场光学显微镜和等离子体电路的前所未有的未来发展。这种先进材料具有广泛的可能和已证实的应用，从增强太阳能转换到超级透镜和光学隐形。 本文概述的研究计划围绕与使用创新等离子体平台的先进分子传感相关的三个主题：（i）增强灵敏度（ii）提高选择性和（iii）未来可持续性；这些领域概述如下：(i) 增强敏感性。虽然理论研究表明等离激元纳米颗粒出色的光操纵能力应该可以实现单分子水平的检测；缺乏此类检测限度的常规证据。该问题的解决方案不仅在于能够制造在尺寸和形状方面具有优异单分散性的纳米颗粒，而且在于能够以最小的成本在大表面积上以所需的配置制造这种结构的组件。我们克服这些问题的方法将是探索多种策略，包括层层沉积、生物支架和等离子体超分子阵列，以创建新型等离子体平台。 (ii) 增强选择性。持续困扰等离子体传感进展的一个问题是非目标分析物与传感器表面的非特异性相互作用。 我们的方法将是扩大我们在适体传感器领域的探索性工作，用于目标分析物检测。此外，我们将探索电化学表面增强拉曼光谱（SERS）在多大程度上可用于增强选择性。 iii) 未来的可持续性。目前的等离子体金属，例如金和银，具有成本高（尤其是金）以及长期可用性有限（尤其是银）的缺点。作为该计划的一部分，我们计划探索铜和铝纳米颗粒在等离子体应用中的使用。 与此类纳米结构的合成和稳定性相关的问题将通过离子液体稳定纳米颗粒合成和电化学沉积等方法来解决。