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Plasmonic trimers designed as SERS-active chemical traps for subtyping of lung tumors.

Authors :
Zhao, Xing
Liu, Xiaojing
Chen, Dexiang
Shi, Guodong
Li, Guoqun
Tang, Xiao
Zhu, Xiangnan
Li, Mingze
Yao, Lei
Wei, Yunjia
Song, Wenzhe
Sun, Zixuan
Fan, Xingce
Zhou, Zhixin
Qiu, Teng
Hao, Qi
Source :
Nature Communications; 7/12/2024, Vol. 15 Issue 1, p1-11, 11p
Publication Year :
2024

Abstract

Plasmonic materials can generate strong electromagnetic fields to boost the Raman scattering of surrounding molecules, known as surface-enhanced Raman scattering. However, these electromagnetic fields are heterogeneous, with only molecules located at the 'hotspots', which account for ≈ 1% of the surface area, experiencing efficient enhancement. Herein, we propose patterned plasmonic trimers, consisting of a pair of plasmonic dimers at the bilateral sides and a trap particle positioned in between, to address this challenge. The trimer configuration selectively directs probe molecules to the central traps where 'hotspots' are located through chemical affinity, ensuring a precise spatial overlap between the probes and the location of maximum field enhancement. We investigate the Raman enhancement of the Au@Al<subscript>2</subscript>O<subscript>3</subscript>-Au-Au@Al<subscript>2</subscript>O<subscript>3</subscript> trimers, achieving a detection limit of 10<superscript>−14 </superscript>M of 4-methylbenzenethiol, 4-mercaptopyridine, and 4-aminothiophenol. Moreover, single-molecule SERS sensitivity is demonstrated by a bi-analyte method. Benefiting from this sensitivity, our approach is employed for the early detection of lung tumors using fresh tissues. Our findings suggest that this approach is sensitive to adenocarcinoma but not to squamous carcinoma or benign cases, offering insights into the differentiation between lung tumor subtypes. SERS spectroscopy critically relies on the accumulation of analyte molecules in electromagnetic 'hotspots'. Here, the authors demonstrate plasmonic trimers with central particles that act as chemical traps, enabling the subtyping of lung tumors using fresh tissue samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20411723
Volume :
15
Issue :
1
Database :
Complementary Index
Journal :
Nature Communications
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
178460293
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50321-0