Gold nanostar shape of the future( DURHAM N.C. Rods cones cubes and sp...)

DURHAM, N.C. Rods, cones, cubes and spheres move aside. Tiny gold stars, smaller than a billionth of a meter, may hold the promise for new approaches to medical diagnoses or testing for environmental contaminants.

While nanoparticles have been the rage across a wide spectrum of sciences, a new study by Duke University bioengineers indicates that of all the shapes studied to date, stars may shine above all the rest for certain applications.

The key is light, and how that light reflects off the particles. Compared to the other shapes, nanostars can dramatically enhance the reflected light, the Duke scientists found. This increases their potential usefulness as a tracer, label, or contrast agent.

Since the researchers also found that the size and shape of the nanostars affect the spectrum of reflected light, they believe that these tiny nanostars can also be "tuned" to identify particular molecules or chemicals.

"To our knowledge, this is the first report of the development and use of gold nanostars as labels for molecular detection and description of their controlled synthesis with different sizes and shapes" said Chris Khoury, lead author of a paper published on-line in the Journal of Physical Chemistry. Khoury is a graduate student in biomedical engineering working in the laboratory of senior researcher Tuan Vo-Dinh, R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and director of The Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics at Duke.

In the Duke experiments, the nanostars were used in conjunction with a phenomena first described in the 1970s known as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). When light, usually from a laser, is shined on a sample, the target molecule vibrates and scatters back in its own unique light, often referred to as the Raman scatter. However, this Raman response is extremely weak. When the target molecule is coupled with a metal nanoparticle or nanostruct
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