Copolymerization of Metal Nanoparticles: A Route to Colloidal Plasmonic Copolymers

The resemblance between colloidal and molecular polymerization reactions is very useful in fundamental studies of polymerization reactions, as well as in the development of new nanoscale systems with desired properties. Future applications of colloidal polymers will require nanoparticle ensembles with a high degree of complexity that can be realized by hetero‐assembly of NPs with different dimensions, shapes, and compositions. A method has been developed to apply strategies from molecular copolymerization to the co‐assembly of gold nanorods with different dimensions into random and block copolymer structures (plasmonic copolymers). The approach was extended to the co‐assembly of random copolymers of gold and palladium nanorods. A kinetic model validated and further expanded the kinetic theories developed for molecular copolymerization reactions.     

Plasmonic Nanobiosensor with Chain Reaction Amplification Mechanism

Herein we demonstrate a plasmonic nanobiosensor that explores chain reaction amplification mechanisms to transduce chemical signals released in biocatalytic reactions, turning optical signals into a visual spectral range. The sensor has a very simple design: gold nanoparticles resting in the surface of a grafted P2VP film. Changes in the gold nanoparticles’ position causes changes in the plasmon coupling mode. This is detected by means of a maximum absorbance shift.     

Catalytic Oxidation of Indigo Carmine in the Presence of Silver Nanoparticles: Application to Groundwater Analysis

The oxidation of indigo carmine by potassium hexacyanoferrate(III) is catalyzed by trace of silver nanoparticle (AgNP). The reaction is followed UV‐Vis absorption spectrophotometrically by measuring the change in the absorption spectra (λ_max 612 nm). The catalytic oxidation reaction is used for the quantification of indigo carmine. The calibration graph was linear in the concentration range 50 nM—1.8 μM of indigo carmine. The variables affecting the method have been optimized. The method is applied to the determination of indigo carmine in groundwater samples with the satisfactory results.     

Electromagnetic characterization of bianisotropic metasurfaces on refractive substrates: General theoretical framework

We present a general methodology for electromagnetic homogenization and characterization of bianisotropic metasurfaces formed by regular or random arrangements of small arbitrary inclusions at interfaces of two different isotropic media. The approach unites and generalizes the earlier theories developed independently by two joint research groups: that of profs. Holloway and Kuester and that of profs. Simovski and Tretyakov. We analyze the features of both formalisms and discuss their peculiarities in several example cases. Our theory can be used in the analysis and synthesis of a wide spectrum of metasurfaces.

     

内壁涂覆石墨烯的双椭圆中空表面等离子波导

本文设计了一种内壁涂覆单层石墨烯的双椭圆形中空表面等离子波导,采用有限元的方法对其传输特性进行了研究。结果表明,椭圆之间的距离和半短轴的长度增大时,有效折射率的实部减小,传输距离增大,模式面积减小;圆化半径增大时,有效折射率的实部增大,传输距离减小,模式面积增大;工作频率增大时,有效折射率的实部减小,传输距离减小,模式面积减小;温度升高时,有效折射率先增大后减小,传输距离减小,模式面积减小。本文的工作为研究基于石墨烯的波导器件提供了理论依据。     

Noble‐Metal‐Free Materials for Surface‐Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Detection

Surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is an attractive tool for the sensing of molecules in the fields of chemical and biochemical analysis as it enables the sensitive detection of molecular fingerprint information even at the single‐molecule level. In addition to traditional coinage metals in SERS analysis, recent research on noble‐metal‐free materials has also yielded highly sensitive SERS activity. This Minireview presents the recent development of noble‐metal‐free materials as SERS substrates and their potential applications, especially semiconductors and emerging graphene‐based nanostructures. Rather than providing an exhaustive review of this field, possible contributions from semiconductor substrates, characteristics of graphene enhanced Raman scattering, as well as effect factors such as surface plasmon resonance, structure and defects of the nanostructures that are considered essential for SERS activity are emphasized. The intention is to illustrate, through these examples, that the promise of noble‐metal‐free materials for enhancing detection sensitivity can further fuel the development of SERS‐related applications.     

Enhanced Peroxidase-mimicking Activity of Plasmonic Gold-modified Mn3O4 Nanocomposites through Photoexcited Hot Electron Transfer

Enzyme-mimicking artificial nanomaterials often termed nanozymes have broad applications in many fields, including biosensing, pollutant degradation and cancer diagnosis. Herein, we introduce a plasmonic gold nanoparticle-modified Mn₃O₄ nanozyme (Mn₃O₄-Au). Visible or near infrared light excitation into the plasmonic absorption band of the surface-bound gold nanoparticles enhances the catalytic oxidation of tetramethylbenzidine (TMB). The mechanism of light-enhanced peroxidase activity is proposed based on the Mn₃O₄ conduction band mediated hot electron transfer from photoexcited gold nanoparticles to H₂O₂ which undergoes further oxygen-oxygen bond cleavage to yield hydroxyl radical. The surface decoration of plasmonic gold nanoparticles endows Mn₃O₄-Au to be a light-regulated nanozyme.     

Self-assembly 2D plasmonic nanorice film for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

As an ultrasensitive sensing technology, the application of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is one interesting topic of nano-optics, which has huge application prospectives in plenty of research fields. In recent years, the bottleneck in SERS application could be the fabrication of SERS substrate with excellent enhancement. In this work, a two-dimensional (2D) Ag nanorice film is fabricated by self-assembly method as a SERS substrate. The collected SERS spectra of various molecules on this 2D plasmonic film demonstrate quantitative detection could be performed on this SERS substrate. The experiment data also demonstrate this 2D plasmonic film consisted of anisotropic nanostructures has no obvious SERS polarization dependence. The simulated electric field distribution points out the SERS enhancement comes from the surface plasmon coupling between nanorices. And the SERS signals is dominated by molecules adsorbed at different regions of nanorice surface at various wavelengths, which could be a good near IR SERS substrate for bioanalysis. Our work not only enlarges the surface plasmon properties of metal nanostructure, but also exhibits the good application prospect in SERS related fields.     

A plasmonic waveguide end-coupled to two plasmonic cavities in a non-Hermitian quantum system for dual-band unidirectional reflectionlessness

We demonstrate the possibility of dual-band unidirectional reflectionlessness in a non-Hermitian quantum system composed of a plasmonic waveguide and two end-coupled plasmonic cavities(PCs).Our scheme exhibits dual-band unidirectional reflectionlessness can be obtained at exceptional points by properly adjusting the coupling strength between two PCs,the ratio of decay rates of two PCs,and the ratio of plasmonic cavity-waveguide coupling strengths.As a valuable feature,the quality factor reaches to~175.4 in forward direction,while the backward quality factor is close to~188.2.     

DNA-Based Adaptive Plasmonic Logic Gates

Self-assembled plasmonic logic gates that read DNA molecules as input and return plasmonic chiroptical signals as outputs are reported. Such logic gates are achieved on a DNA-based platform that logically regulate the conformation of a chiral plasmonic nanostructure, upon specific input DNA strands and internal computing units. With systematical designs, a complete set of Boolean logical gates are realized. Intriguingly, the logic gates could be endowed with adaptiveness, so they can autonomously alter their logics when the environment changes. As a demonstration, a logic gate that performs AND function at body temperature while OR function at cold storage temperature is constructed. In addition, the plasmonic chiroptical output has three distinctive states, which makes a three-state molecular logic gate readily achievable on this platform. Such DNA-based plasmonic logic gates are envisioned to execute more complex tasks giving these unique characteristics.