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Gold nanostar shape of the future
Date:11/6/2008

ure, the Raman response is greatly enhanced by the SERS effect often by more than a million times, Vo-Dinh said.

In the early 1980s, while at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tenn., Vo-Dinh and colleagues were among the first to demonstrate that SERS could be put into practical use to detect chemicals including carcinogens, environmental pollutants, and early markers of disease. Now at Duke, Vo-Dinh is pushing the boundaries of the SERS technology by designing a variety of unique types and shapes of metal nanoparticles that can be used as SERS labels for chemical and biomedical detection.

"We are trying to understand which type of nanostructures will give us the optimal signal so we can use them to monitor trace amounts of pollutants or detect diseases in their earliest stage" Vo-Dinh said. "This study is the first demonstration that these nanostars can enhance the effect of SERS to produce strong and unique signatures, like 'optical fingerprints.'"

Khoury "grew" the nanostars by mixing miniscule gold particle seeds in a growth solution. As more gold was added to the solution, protrusions began to sprout from the central core. Additional gold increased the size of the entire particle.

"These experiments demonstrate that it is possible to vary the size and shape of the nanostars in a controlled fashion by adjusting the volume of gold seeds added to the growth solution," Khoury said. "We found that variations in star size changed the reflected light, which hints toward the tuning capabilities that can be exploited by SERS technology."

For such studies, or those involving environmental contaminants, a dye would be attached to the nanostars and mixed with the sample to be tested. The sample would then be placed under a microscope and hit with a burst of laser energy. Sensors would pick up the Raman scattering and interpret the unique optical fingerprint.

Khoury said that nanostars are small enough to pass through
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Contact: Richard Merritt
richard.merritt@duke.edu
919-660-8414
Duke University
Source:Eurekalert

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