“Micelle-directed chiral seeded growth on anisotropic gold nanocrystals”. González-Rubio G, Mosquera J, Kumar V, Pedrazo-Tardajos A, Llombart P, Solís DM, Lobato I, Noya EG, Guerrero-Martínez A, Taboada JM, Obelleiro F, MacDowell LG, Bals S, Liz-Marzán LM, Science 368, 1472 (2020). http://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba0980
Abstract: Surfactant-assisted seeded growth of metal nanoparticles (NPs) can be engineered to produce anisotropic gold nanocrystals with high chiroptical activity through the templating effect of chiral micelles formed in the presence of dissymmetric cosurfactants. Mixed micelles adsorb on gold nanorods, forming quasihelical patterns that direct seeded growth into NPs with pronounced morphological and optical handedness. Sharp chiral wrinkles lead to chiral plasmon modes with high dissymmetry factors (~0.20). Through variation of the dimensions of chiral wrinkles, the chiroptical properties can be tuned within the visible and near-infrared electromagnetic spectrum. The micelle-directed mechanism allows extension to other systems, such as the seeded growth of chiral platinum shells on gold nanorods. This approach provides a reproducible, simple, and scalable method toward the fabrication of NPs with high chiral optical activity.
Keywords: A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Electron microscopy for materials research (EMAT)
Impact Factor: 56.9
Times cited: 187
DOI: 10.1126/science.aba0980
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“Plasmonic Au@Pd Nanorods with Boosted Refractive Index Susceptibility and SERS Efficiency: A Multifunctional Platform for Hydrogen Sensing and Monitoring of Catalytic Reactions”. Rodal-Cedeira S, Montes-García V, Polavarapu L, Solís DM, Heidari H, La Porta A, Angiola M, Martucci A, Taboada JM, Obelleiro F, Bals S, Pérez-Juste J, Pastoriza-Santos I, Chemistry of materials 28, 9169 (2016). http://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6b04941
Abstract: Palladium nanoparticles (NPs) have received tremendous attention over the years due to their high catalytic activity for various chemical reactions. However, unlike other noble metal nanoparticles such as Au and Ag NPs, they exhibit poor plasmonic properties with broad extinction spectra and less scattering efficiency, and thus limiting their applications in the field of plasmonics. Therefore, it has been challenging to integrate tunable and strong plasmonic properties into catalytic Pd nanoparticles. Here we show that plasmonic Au@Pd nanorods (NRs) with relatively narrow and remarkably tunable optical responses in the NIR region can be obtained by directional growth of Pd on penta-twinned Au NR seeds. We found the presence of bromide ions facilitates the stabilization of facets for the directional growth of Pd shell to obtain Au@Pd nanorods (NR) with controlled length scales. Interestingly, it turns out the Au NR supported Pd NRs exhibit much narrow extinction compared to pure Pd NRs, which makes them suitable for plasmonic sensing applications. Moreover, these nanostructures display, to the best of our knowledge, one of the highest ensemble refractive index sensitivity values reported to date (1067 nm per refractive index unit, RIU). Additionally, we showed the application of such plasmonic Au@Pd NRs for localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR)-based sensing of hydrogen both in solution as well as on substrate. Finally, we demonstrate the integration of excellent plasmonic properties in catalytic palladium enables the in situ monitoring of a reaction progress by surface-enhanced Raman scattering. We postulate the proposed approach to boost the plasmonic properties of Pd nanoparticles will ignite the design of complex shaped plasmonic Pd NPs to be used in various plasmonic applications such as sensing and in situ monitoring of various chemical reactions.
Keywords: A1 Journal article; Electron microscopy for materials research (EMAT)
Impact Factor: 9.466
Times cited: 80
DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.6b04941
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“Gold Nanostar-Coated Polystyrene Beads as Multifunctional Nanoprobes for SERS Bioimaging”. Serrano-Montes AB, Langer J, Henriksen-Lacey M, Jimenez de Aberasturi D, Solís DM, Taboada JM, Obelleiro F, Sentosun K, Bals S, Bekdemir A, Stellacci F, Liz-Marzán LM, The journal of physical chemistry: C : nanomaterials and interfaces 120, 20860 (2016). http://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b02282
Abstract: Hybrid colloidal nanocomposites comprising polystyrene beads and plasmonic gold nanostars are reported as multifunctional optical nanoprobes. Such self-assembled structures are excellent Raman enhancers for bio-applications as they feature plasmon modes in the near infrared “first biological transparency window”. In this proof of concept study, we used 4- mercaptobenzoic acid as a Raman-active molecule to optimize the density of gold nanostars on polystyrene beads, improving SERS performance and thereby allowing in vitro cell culture imaging. Interestingly, intermediate gold nanostar loadings were found to yield higher SERS response, which was confirmed by electromagnetic modeling. These engineered hybrid nanostructures notably improve the possibilities of using gold nanostars as SERS tags. Additionally, when fluorescently labeled polystyrene bead are used as colloidal carriers, the composite particles can be applied as promising tools for multimodal bioimaging.
Keywords: A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Electron microscopy for materials research (EMAT)
Impact Factor: 4.536
Times cited: 64
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b02282
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“Collective Plasmonic Properties in Few-Layer Gold Nanorod Supercrystals”. Hamon C, Novikov SM, Scarabelli L, Solís DM, Altantzis T, Bals S, Taboada JM, Obelleiro F, Liz-Marzán LM, ACS Photonics 2, 1482 (2015). http://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.5b00369
Abstract: Gold nanorod supercrystals have been widely employed for the detection of relevant bioanalytes with detection limits ranging from nano- to picomolar levels,
confirming the promising nature of these structures for biosensing. Even though a relationship between the height of the supercrystal (i.e., the number of stacked nanorod layers)and the enhancement factor has been proposed, no systematic
study has been reported. In order to tackle this problem, we prepared gold nanorod supercrystals with varying numbers of stacked layers and analyzed them extensively by atomic force microscopy, electron microscopy and surface enhanced Raman scattering. The experimental results were compared to numerical
simulations performed on real-size supercrystals composed of thousands of nanorod building blocks. Analysis of the hot spot distribution in the simulated supercrystals showed the presence of standing waves that were distributed at different depths, depending on the number of layers in each supercrystal. On the basis of these theoretical results, we interpreted the experimental
data in terms of analyte penetration into the topmost layer only, which indicates that diffusion to the interior of the supercrystals would be crucial if the complete field enhancement produced by the stacked nanorods is to be exploited. We propose that our conclusions will be of high relevance in the design of next generation plasmonic devices.
Keywords: A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Electron microscopy for materials research (EMAT)
Impact Factor: 6.756
Times cited: 70
DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.5b00369
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“Morphological and Optical Transitions during Micelle-Seeded Chiral Growth on Gold Nanorods”. Zhuo X, Mychinko M, Heyvaert W, Larios D, Obelleiro-Liz M, Taboada JM, Bals S, Liz-Marzán LM, ACS nano (2022). http://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.2c08668
Abstract: Chiral plasmonics is a rapidly developing field where breakthroughs and unsolved problems coexist. We have recently reported binary surfactant-assisted seeded growth of chiral gold nanorods (Au NRs) with high chiroptical activity. Such a seeded-growth process involves the use of a chiral cosurfactant that induces micellar helicity, in turn driving the transition from achiral to chiral Au NRs, from both the morphological and the optical points of view. We report herein a detailed study on both transitions, which reveals intermediate states that were hidden so far. The correlation between structure and optical response is carefully analyzed, including the (linear and CD) spectral evolution over time, electron tomography, the impact of NR dimensions on their optical response, the variation of the absorption-to-scattering ratio during the evolution from achiral to chiral Au NRs, and the near-field enhancement related to chiral plasmon modes. Our findings provide further understanding of the growth process of chiral Au NRs and the associated optical changes, which will facilitate further study and applications of chiral nanomaterials.
Keywords: A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Electron microscopy for materials research (EMAT)
Impact Factor: 17.1
Times cited: 17
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.2c08668
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“Chiral Seeded Growth of Gold Nanorods Into 4‐Fold Twisted Nanoparticles with Plasmonic Optical Activity”. Ni B, Mychinko M, Gómez‐Graña S, Morales‐Vidal J, Obelleiro‐Liz M, Heyvaert W, Vila‐Liarte D, Zhuo X, Albrecht W, Zheng G, González‐Rubio G, Taboada JM, Obelleiro F, López N, Pérez‐Juste J, Pastoriza‐Santos I, Cölfen H, Bals S, Liz‐Marzán LM, Advanced materials , 2208299 (2022). http://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202208299
Abstract: A robust and reproducible methodology to prepare stable inorganic nanoparticles with chiral morphology might hold the key to the practical utilization of these materials. We describe herein an optimized chiral growth method to prepare 4-fold twisted gold nanorods, where the amino acid cysteine is used as a dissymmetry inducer. Four tilted ridges were found to develop on the surface of single-crystal nanorods upon repeated reduction of HAuCl4, in the presence of cysteine as the chiral inducer and ascorbic acid as a reducing agent. From detailed electron microscopy analysis of the crystallographic structures, we propose that dissymmetry results from the development of chiral facets in the form of protrusions (tilted ridges) on the initial nanorods, eventually leading to a twisted shape. The role of cysteine is attributed to assisting enantioselective facet evolution, which is supported by density functional theory simulations of the surface energies, modified upon adsorption of the chiral molecule. The development of R-type and S-type chiral structures (small facets, terraces, or kinks) would thus be non-equal, removing the mirror symmetry of the Au NR and in turn resulting in a markedly chiral morphology with high plasmonic optical activity.
Keywords: A1 Journal article; Engineering sciences. Technology; Electron microscopy for materials research (EMAT)
Impact Factor: 29.4
Times cited: 35
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202208299
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“Reversible Clustering of Gold Nanoparticles under Confinement”. Sánchez-Iglesias A, Claes N, Solís DM, Taboada JM, Bals S, Liz-Marzán LM, Grzelczak M, Angewandte Chemie: international edition in English 57, 3183 (2018). http://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201800736
Abstract: A limiting factor of solvent-induced nanoparticle self-assembly is the need for constant sample dilution in assembly/disassembly cycles. Changes in the nanoparticle concentration alter the kinetics of the subsequent assembly process, limiting optical signal recovery. Herein, we show that upon confining hydrophobic nanoparticles in permeable silica nanocapsules, the number of nanoparticles participating in cyclic aggregation remains constant despite bulk changes in solution, leading to highly reproducible plasmon band shifts at different solvent compositions.
Keywords: A1 Journal article; Electron microscopy for materials research (EMAT)
Impact Factor: 11.994
Times cited: 53
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201800736
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