Light-assisted nucleation of silver nanowires during polyol synthesis

Investigating the Effect of Silver Nanoparticles on the Fluorescence Intensity of Bambuterol and its Active Metabolite Terbutaline Using FRET

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were found to significantly quench the fluorescence of bambuterol hydrochloride (BAM) and its active metabolite terbutaline sulfate (TER). The intrinsic fluorescence intensity of each of BAM (at 264/292 nm) and TER (at 276/306 nm) decreased by the gradual addition of AgNPs. Quenching of the steady state fluorescence of BAM and TER probably resulted from the energy transfer to the photo-excited state of AgNPs. The estimated Stern-Volmer quenching constant at several temperature settings proved that the quenching mechanism of the two drugs was dynamic quenching in case of BAM while it was static quenching in case of TER. The number of binding sites, binding constants, and corresponding thermodynamic parameters depending on the interaction system were estimated at 293, 313, and 333 °K and the results obtained were interpreted.

Mechanism Understanding for Size Regulation of Silver Nanowires Mediated by Halogen Ions

The controllable preparation of silver nanowires (AgNWs) with a high aspect ratio is key for enabling their applications on a large scale. Herein, the aspect ratio regulation of AgNWs mediated by halogen ion composition in ethylene glycol system was systematically investigated and the size evolution mechanism is elaborately understood. The co-addition of Br⁻ and Cl⁻ results in AgNWs with the highest aspect ratio of 1031. The surface physicochemical analysis of AgNWs and the density functional theory calculations indicate that the co-addition of Br⁻ and Cl⁻ contributes to the much-enhanced preferential growth of the Ag(111) crystal plane. At the same time, when Cl⁻ and Br⁻ coexist in the solution, the growth of the Ag(100) crystal plane on the AgNWs was restrained compared with that in the single Cl⁻ system. Resultantly, the enhanced growth of Ag(111) and the inhibited growth of Ag(100) contribute to the formation of AgNWs with a higher aspect ratio in the Cl–Br mixed solution. The results can provide new insights for understanding the morphology and size evolution during the AgNWs preparation in ethylene glycol system.

Gold-Etched Silver Nanowire Endoscopy: Toward a Widely Accessible Platform for Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering-Based Analysis in Living Cells

Recently, our group introduced the use of silver nanowires (AgNWs) as novel non-invasive endoscopic probes for detecting intracellular Raman signals. This method, although innovative and promising, relies exclusively on the plasmonic waveguiding effect for signal enhancement. It, therefore, requires sophisticated operational tools and protocols, drastically limiting its applicability. Herein, an advanced strategy is offered to significantly enhance the performance of these endoscopic probes, making this approach widely accessible and versatile for cellular studies. By uniformly forming gold structures on the smooth AgNW surface via a galvanic replacement reaction, the density of the light coupling points along the whole probe surface is drastically increased, enabling high surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) efficiency upon solely focusing the excitation light on the gold-etched AgNW. The applicability of these gold-etched AgNW probes for molecular sensing in cells is demonstrated by detecting site-specific and high-resolved SERS spectra of cell compartment-labeling dyes, namely, 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole in the nucleus and 3,3'-dioctadecyloxacarbocyanine on the membrane. The remarkable spectral sensitivity achieved provides essential structural information of the analytes, indicating the overall potential of the proposed approach for cellular studies of drug interactions with biomolecular items.

Synthesis and Applications of Silver Nanowires for Transparent Conductive Films

Flexible transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) are widely applied in flexible electronic devices. Among these electrodes, silver (Ag) nanowires (NWs) have gained considerable interests due to their excellent electrical and optical performances. Ag NWs with a one-dimensional nanostructure have unique characteristics from those of bulk Ag. In past 10 years, researchers have proposed various synthesis methods of Ag NWs, such as ultraviolet irradiation, template method, polyol method, etc. These methods are discussed and summarized in this review, and we conclude that the advantages of the polyol method are the most obvious. This review also provides a more comprehensive description of the polyol method for the synthesis of Ag NWs, and the synthetic factors including AgNO3 concentration, addition of other metal salts and polyvinyl pyrrolidone are thoroughly elaborated. Furthermore, several problems in the fabrication of Ag NWs-based TCEs and related devices are reviewed. The prospects for applications of Ag NWs-based TCE in solar cells, electroluminescence, electrochromic devices, flexible energy storage equipment, thin-film heaters and stretchable devices are discussed and summarized in detail.

The comprehensive effects of visible light irradiation on silver nanowire transparent electrode

The silver nanowire (AgNW) transparent electrode is one of the promising components for flexible electronics due to its high electrical and thermal conductivity, optical transparency and flexibility. However, the application of the AgNW electrode with an improved performance is generally limited by its poor long-term stability. As the name suggests, the transparent electrode is usually exposed to visible light in various applications. Unlike other electrode materials, AgNWs show unique and complicated behavior under long-term visible light illumination. In this study, the comprehensive effect of visible light irradiation on the AgNW transparent electrode is initially investigated in detail. Light irradiation induces the migration of silver to enhance the nanowire contacts while also leading to the generation and growth of particles and diameter loss in the nanowire. Light irradiation accelerates the sulfidation and oxidation of the AgNWs as well, resulting in the emergence of degradation products on the nanowire surface. All these effects influence the sheet resistance of the AgNW electrode during light illumination. The light-induced change of sheet resistance also relates to the nanowire concentration due to the sensitivity of the wire-wire contact resistance near the percolation threshold. It is believed that this work will be a valuable reference for the design, processing and application of transparent electrodes used in numerous optoelectronic devices.

Plasmon-Mediated Surface Engineering of Silver Nanowires for Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering

We reveal nanoscale morphological changes on the surface of a silver nanowire (AgNW) in the conventional surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) measurement condition. The surface morphology changes are due to the surface plasmon-mediated photochemical etching of silver in the presence of certain Raman probes, resulting in a dramatic increase of Raman scattering intensity. This observation indicates that the measured SERS enhancement does not always originate from the as-designed/fabricated structures themselves, but sometimes with contribution from the morphological changes by plasmon-mediated photochemical reactions. Our work provides a guideline for more reliable SERS measurements and demonstrates a novel method for simple and site-specific engineering of SERS substrate and AgNW probes for designing and fabricating new SERS systems, stable and efficient TERS mapping, and single-cell SERS endoscopy.

Visualization of molecular fluorescence point spread functions via remote excitation switching fluorescence microscopy

The enhancement of molecular absorption, emission and scattering processes by coupling to surface plasmon polaritons on metallic nanoparticles is a key issue in plasmonics for applications in (bio)chemical sensing, light harvesting and photocatalysis. Nevertheless, the point spread functions for single-molecule emission near metallic nanoparticles remain difficult to characterize due to fluorophore photodegradation, background emission and scattering from the plasmonic structure. Here we overcome this problem by exciting fluorophores remotely using plasmons propagating along metallic nanowires. The experiments reveal a complex array of single-molecule fluorescence point spread functions that depend not only on nanowire dimensions but also on the position and orientation of the molecular transition dipole. This work has consequences for both single-molecule regime-sensing and super-resolution imaging involving metallic nanoparticles and opens the possibilities for fast size sorting of metallic nanoparticles, and for predicting molecular orientation and binding position on metallic nanoparticles via far-field optical imaging.

Plasmonic nanoparticles can dramatically enhance the optical properties of molecules but background scattering is a limiting factor. Su et al. use remote excitation by plasmons on nanowires to better access single fluorophore point spread functions for improved sensing and super-resolution imaging.

Live-cell SERS endoscopy using plasmonic nanowire waveguides

Live-cell surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) endoscopy is developed by using plasmonic nanowire waveguides as endoscopic probes. It is demonstrated that the probe insertion does not stress the cell. Opposed to conventional SERS endoscopy, with excitation at the hotspot within the cell, the remote excitation method yields low-background SERS spectra from specific cell compartments with minimal associated photodamage.

X-ray irradiation-induced formation of luminescent silver clusters in nanoporous matrices

The formation of highly luminescent silver clusters in zeolites using X-ray lithography is reported in this study.

Silver chloride as a heterogeneous nucleant for the growth of silver nanowires

Various additives are employed in the polyol synthesis of silver nanowires (Ag NWs), which are typically halide salts such as NaCl. A variety of mechanistic roles have been suggested for these additives. We now show that the early addition of NaCl in the polyol synthesis of Ag NWs from AgNO3 in ethylene glycol results in the rapid formation of AgCl nanocubes, which induce the heterogeneous nucleation of metallic Ag upon their surfaces. Ag NWs subsequently grow from these nucleation sites. The conclusions are supported by studies using ex situ generated AgCl nanocubes.

Additive-free size-controlled synthesis of gold square nanoplates using photochemical reaction in dynamic phase-separating media

Ultrafast phase separation of water and 2-butoxyethanol mixture was induced by nanosecond IR laser pulse irradiation. After a certain delay time, a UV laser pulse was introduced to induce photoreduction of aurate ions, which led to the formation of gold nanoparticles in dynamic phase-separating media. The structure and size of the nanoparticles varied depending on the delay time between the IR and UV pulses. For a delay time of 5 and 6 μs, gold square plates having edge lengths of 150 and 100 nm were selectively obtained, respectively. With a delay time of 3 μs, on the other hand, the size of the square plates varied widely from 100 nm to a few micrometers. The size of the gold square plates was also varied by varying the total irradiation time of the IR and UV pulses. The size distribution of the square plates obtained under different conditions suggests that the growth process of the square plates was affected by the size of the nanophases during phase separation. Electron diffraction patterns of the synthesized square plates showed that the square plates were highly crystalline with a Au(100) surface. These results showed that the nanophases formed during laser-induced phase separation can provide detergent-free reaction fields for size-controlled nanomaterial synthesis.

Mapping of surface-enhanced fluorescence on metal nanoparticles using super-resolution photoactivation localization microscopy

Photoactivation localization microscopy (PALM) was applied to study surface-enhanced fluorescence (SEF) on metal nanostructures (SEF-PALM). The detection of fluorescence from individual single molecules can be used to image the point-spread-function and spatial distribution of the fluorescence emitted in the vicinity of a metal surface. Due to the strong scattering effect, the angular distribution of the fluorescence is altered by metals, resulting in a spatial shift of fluorescence spots with respect to the metal nanostructures, and has to be taken into account in the analysis. SEF-PALM can be used to discriminate effects of labelling density when estimating the enhancement factor in SEF. Furthermore, nanostructures with sizes below the diffraction limit can be resolved using this technique. SEF-PALM is established as a powerful tool to study plasmon-mediated phenomena on metal nanostructures.