Raman-active nanoparticles and method of preparing the same
AssigneeKorea Research Institute of Standards and Science
InventorsEun-Ah You, Wansun Kim, Tae Geol Lee
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Abstract
Provided is a method of preparing Raman-active nanoparticles, which includes a) preparing a metal nanocore having a nano-star shape from a first reaction solution in which a first metal precursor is mixed with a buffer solution; b) fixing a Raman reporter in the metal nanocore; and c) forming a metal shell, which surrounds the nanocore in which the Raman reporter is fixed, from a second reaction solution in which a second metal precursor is mixed with the nanocore in which the Raman reporter is fixed. The Raman reporter has a binding affinity for each of a first metal of the metal nanocore and a second metal of the metal shell.
Claims5
A method of preparing Raman-active nanoparticles, the method comprising:
- a) preparing a gold nanocore having a nano-star shape from a first reaction solution in which a first gold precursor is mixed with only a 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid (HEPES) buffer solution;
- b) fixing a 1,4-benzenedithiol (BDT) to the gold nanocore after a) is performed;
- and
- c) forming a gold metal shell, which surrounds the nanocore in which the BDT is fixed, from a second reaction solution in which a second gold precursor is mixed with the nanocore in which the BDT is fixed after b) is performed,
- wherein a size and/or shape of the nanocore is adjusted by controlling a factor of a molar ratio of the HEPES of the buffer solution to the first gold precursor in a) to be about 700 and controlling the pH to be about 7.2, such that the resulting Raman-active nanoparticles elicit Raman signals coincident with innate surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) signals of the BDT,
- wherein the BDT has a binding affinity for each of the gold nanocore and the gold metal shell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.