Analysis of intracellular state based on controlled 3D nanostructures mediated surface enhanced Raman scattering.

ABSTRACT: Near-infrared surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a powerful technique for analyzing the chemical composition within a single living cell at unprecedented resolution. However, current SERS methods employing uncontrollable colloidal metal particles or non-uniformly distributed metal particles on a substrate as SERS-active sites show relatively low reliability and reproducibility. Here, we report a highly-ordered SERS-active surface that is provided by a gold nano-dots array based on thermal evaporation of gold onto an ITO surface through a nanoporous alumina mask. This new combined technique showed a broader distribution of hot spots and a higher signal-to-noise ratio than current SERS techniques due to the highly reproducible and uniform geometrical structures over a large area.

SUBMITTER: El-Said WA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3044723 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature