Silica-Coated Plasmonic Metal Nanoparticles in Action.

Hybrid colloids consisting of noble metal cores and metal oxide shells have been under intense investigation for over two decades and have driven progress in diverse research lines including sensing, medicine, catalysis, and photovoltaics. Consequently, plasmonic core-shell particles have come to play a vital role in a plethora of applications. Here, an overview is provided of recent developments in the design and utilization of the most successful class of such hybrid materials, silica-coated plasmonic metal nanoparticles. Besides summarizing common simple approaches to silica shell growth, special emphasis is put on advanced synthesis routes that either overcome typical limitations of classical methods, such as stability issues and undefined silica porosity, or grant access to particularly sophisticated nanostructures. Hereby, a description is given, how different types of silica can be used to provide noble metal particles with specific functionalities. Finally, applications of such nanocomposites in ultrasensitive analyte detection, theranostics, catalysts, and thin-film solar cells are reviewed.

Detection and imaging of quorum sensing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm communities by surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering.

Most bacteria in nature exist as biofilms, which support intercellular signalling processes such as quorum sensing (QS), a cell-to-cell communication mechanism that allows bacteria to monitor and respond to cell density and changes in the environment. As QS and biofilms are involved in the ability of bacteria to cause disease, there is a need for the development of methods for the non-invasive analysis of QS in natural bacterial populations. Here, by using surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering spectroscopy, we report rationally designed nanostructured plasmonic substrates for the in situ, label-free detection of a QS signalling metabolite in growing Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms and microcolonies. The in situ, non-invasive plasmonic imaging of QS in biofilms provides a powerful analytical approach for studying intercellular communication on the basis of secreted molecules as signals.

Hierarchical organization and molecular diffusion in gold nanorod/silica supercrystal nanocomposites.

Hierarchical organization of gold nanorods was previously obtained on a substrate, allowing precise control over the morphology of the assemblies and macroscale spatial arrangement. Herein, a thorough description of these gold nanorod assemblies and their orientation within supercrystals is presented together with a sol-gel technique to protect the supercrystals with mesoporous silica films. The internal organization of the nanorods in the supercrystals was characterized by combining focused ion beam ablation and scanning electron microscopy. A mesoporous silica layer is grown both over the supercrystals and between the individual lamellae of gold nanorods inside the structure. This not only prevented the detachment of the supercrystal from the substrate in water, but also allowed small molecule analytes to infiltrate the structure. These nanocomposite substrates show superior Raman enhancement in comparison with gold supercrystals without silica owing to improved accessibility of the plasmonic hot spots to analytes. The patterned supercrystal arrays with enhanced optical and mechanical properties obtained in this work show potential for the practical implementation of nanostructured devices in spatially resolved ultradetection of biomarkers and other analytes.

Templated Growth of Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering-Active Branched Gold Nanoparticles within Radial Mesoporous Silica Shells.

Noble metal nanoparticles are widely used as probes or substrates for surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), due to their characteristic plasmon resonances in the visible and near-IR spectral ranges. Aiming at obtaining a versatile system with high SERS performance, we developed the synthesis of quasi-monodisperse, nonaggregated gold nanoparticles protected by radial mesoporous silica shells. The radial mesoporous channels were used as templates for the growth of gold tips branching out from the cores, thereby improving the plasmonic performance of the particles while favoring the localization of analyte molecules at high electric field regions: close to the tips, inside the pores. The method, which additionally provides control over tip length, was successfully applied to gold nanoparticles with various shapes, leading to materials with highly efficient SERS performance. The obtained nanoparticles are stable in ethanol and water upon thermal consolidation and can be safely stored as a powder.

Optical and magnetic characterisation of Co3+ and Ni3+ in LaAlO3: interplay between the spin state and Jahn-Teller effect.

The coordination, the electronic structures and the spin of the ground state of Ni(3+) (3d(7)) and Co(3+) (3d(6)) introduced as impurities in LaAlO(3) are investigated through optical spectroscopy and magnetic measurements. The unusual trivalent valence state in both transition-metal ions was stabilised via a sol-gel process followed by high oxygen pressure treatments. We show that the crystal-field strength at the nearly O(h) transition-metal site in LaAlO(3) locates Ni(3+) and Co(3+) near the spin state crossover, yielding a low-spin ground state in both cases. We analyse how the interplay between the Jahn-Teller (JT) effect and the spin state affects the magnetic moment of the ion and its temperature dependence. The optical spectra reveal a JT effect associated with a low-spin ground state in Ni(3+) and with a thermally populated high-spin low-lying first excited state in Co(3+). The corresponding JT distortions are derived from structural correlations. We conclude that the JT effect is unable to stabilise the intermediate spin state in Co(3+). A low-spin ground state in thermal equilibrium with a high-spin low-lying first excited state is detected in diluted Co(3+)-doped LaAlO(3). These results are compared with those obtained in the parent pure compounds LaNiO(3) and LaCoO(3).

Photoluminescence properties of Jahn-Teller transition-metal ions.

This work investigates the influence of electron-phonon coupling associated with E tensor product of e and T tensor product of e Jahn-Teller (JT) effect in different transition-metal (TM) ions on de-excitation phenomena through nonradiative multiphonon relaxation, i.e., photoluminescence (PL) quenching. We developed a configurational curve model which is able to predict from the absorption spectrum whether a given JT-TM ion is PL or quenched. The prediction is made on the basis of an adapted Dexter-Klick-Russell parameter for JT systems, defined in terms of spectroscopic parameters through Lambda(JT)=alphaDelta(e)(abs)/E(abs), where Delta(e)(abs) refers to the splitting of the parent octahedral E(g) states by the JT distortion in E tensor product of e (alpha=3/4) or T tensor product of e (alpha=1/4), and E(abs) is the energy of the first absorption band involving electronic transition between E(g) and T(2g). We show that PL in any JT-TM ion occurs whenever Lambda(JT)<0.1 or is quenched if Lambda(JT)>0.2. This result is noteworthy since it allows us to establish structural requirements for the JT-TM ion and the host crystal to be PL. Although PL properties of materials containing TM ions depend on a variety of structural factors such as the electronic configuration, the site symmetry, and the crystal field produced by neighboring atoms, the present model achieves this goal through a simple spectroscopic parameter: Lambda(JT). In this work we correlated the PL properties of different sixfold-coordinated JT systems such as Ti(3+), Cu(2+), Mn(3+), Cr(2+), Fe(2+), Co(3+), and Ni(3+) in halides and oxides with Lambda(JT) obtained from their respective absorption spectra. From this analysis we conclude that depending on the nature of the JT coupling and its strength, PL is either strongly favored or quenched in T tensor product of e while it is mostly quenched in E tensor product of e systems due to the larger JT distortion.