1. Breaking the diffusion limit with super-hydrophobic delivery of molecules to plasmonic nanofocusing SERS structures.
- Author
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De Angelis, F., Gentile, F., Mecarini, F., Das, G., Moretti, M., Candeloro, P., Coluccio, M. L., Cojoc, G., Accardo, A., Liberale, C., Zaccaria, R. P., Perozziello, G., Tirinato, L., Toma, A., Cuda, G., Cingolani, R., and Di Fabrizio, E.
- Subjects
NANOSTRUCTURED materials ,HYDROPHOBIC surfaces ,SCANNING electron microscopy ,RAMAN spectroscopy ,SILICON - Abstract
The detection of a few molecules in a highly diluted solution is of paramount interest in fields including biomedicine, safety and eco-pollution in relation to rare and dangerous chemicals. Nanosensors based on plasmonics are promising devices in this regard, in that they combine the features of high sensitivity, label-free detection and miniaturization. However, plasmonic-based nanosensors, in common with general sensors with sensitive areas on the scale of nanometres, cannot be used directly to detect molecules dissolved in femto- or attomolar solutions. In other words, they are diffusion-limited and their detection times become impractical at such concentrations. In this Article, we demonstrate, by combining super-hydrophobic artificial surfaces and nanoplasmonic structures, that few molecules can be localized and detected even at attomolar (10
?18 mol l?1 ) concentration. Moreover, the detection can be combined with fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy, such that the chemical signature of the molecules can be clearly determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2011
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