Intracellular surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) with thermally stable gold nanoflowers grown from Pt and Pd seeds

Hyon Min Song, Lin Deng, Niveen M. Khashab

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

SERS provides great sensitivity at low concentrations of analytes. SERS combined with near infrared (NIR)-resonant gold nanomaterials are important candidates for theranostic agents due to their combined extinction properties and sensing abilities stemming from the deep penetration of laser light in the NIR region. Here, highly branched gold nanoflowers (GNFs) grown from Pd and Pt seeds are prepared and their SERS properties are studied. The growth was performed at 80°C without stirring, and this high temperature growth method is assumed to provide great shape stability of sharp tips in GNFs. We found that seed size must be large enough (>30 nm in diameter) to induce the growth of those SERS-active and thermally stable GNFs. We also found that the addition of silver nitrate (AgNO3) is important to induce sharp tip growth and shape stability. Incubation with Hela cells indicates that GNFs are taken up and reside in the cytoplasm. SERS was observed in those cells incubated with 1,10-phenanthroline (Phen)-loaded GNFs. This journal is © 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)4321
JournalNanoscale
Volume5
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: The authors gratefully acknowledge King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) for the support of this work. The authors also acknowledge Dr Yang Yang in Imaging & Characterization Corelab in KAUST for help in Raman scattering measurements, and Jian Ren for help in confocal fluorescence microscopy measurements, and Guangchao Wang for help in TEM measurements of nanoparticle-incubated Hela cells.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science

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