Hyper-Rayleigh scattering from gold nanoparticles: effect of size and shape

In situ spectroscopy of ligand exchange reactions at the surface of colloidal gold and silver nanoparticles

Gold and silver nanoparticles with their tunable optical and electronic properties are of great interest for a wide range of applications. Often the ligands at the surface of the nanoparticles have to be exchanged in a second step after particle formation in order to obtain a desired surface functionalization. For many techniques, this process is not accessible in situ. In this review, we present second-harmonic scattering (SHS) as an inherently surface sensitive and label-free optical technique to probe the ligand exchange at the surface of colloidal gold and silver nanoparticles in situ and in real time. First, a brief introduction to SHS and basic features of the SHS of nanoparticles are given. After that, we demonstrate how the SHS intensity decrease can be correlated to the thiol coverage which allows for the determination of the Gibbs free energy of adsorption and the surface coverage.

Surface area-dependent second harmonic generation from silver nanorods

The nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of metallic nanoparticles strongly depend on their size and shape. Metallic gold nanorods have already been widely investigated, but other noble metals could also be used for nanorod fabrication towards applications in photonics. Here we report on the synthesis and NLO characterization of silver nanorods (AgNRs) with controllable localized surface plasmon resonance. We have implemented an original, one-step and seedless synthesis method, based on a spontaneous particle growth technique in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a capping agent. Colloidal solutions of AgNRs with various aspect ratios (5.0; 6.3; 7.5; 8.2 and 9.7) have been obtained and characterized using Harmonic light scattering (HLS) at 1064 nm, in order to investigate their quadratic NLO properties. From HLS experiments, we demonstrate that hyperpolarizability (β) values of AgNRs display a strong dependence on their surface area.

High second-order nonlinear response of platinum nanoflowers: the role of surface corrugation

Platinum nanoflowers (PtNFs) were elaborated using the seed-mediated growth technique applied to monodisperse platinum nanoparticles (∼3.0 nm) synthesized by the chemical reduction method. The X-ray diffraction pattern confirmed the formation of face-centered-cubic platinum nanocrystals. We report the Harmonic Light Scattering (HLS) properties of PtNFs for six different diameters (∼7.0; 8.0; 10.0; 14.0; 20.0 and 31.0 nm). From these HLS data we infer, for the first time, large hyperpolarizability β values of PtNFs. These very high β values of PtNFs are assigned mainly to highly corrugated surfaces for nanoparticles with irregular shapes.

Effect of different-sized spherical gold nanoparticles grown layer by layer on the sensitivity of an immunochromatographic assay

Effect of different-sized spherical gold nanoparticles grown layer by layer on the sensitivity of immunochromatographic assay.

Optimization of second harmonic generation of gold nanospheres and nanorods in aqueous solution: the dominant role of surface area

Gold nanoparticles display exceptionally strong β values. We demonstrated that the first hyperpolarizability (β) strongly depends on surface area of gold nanoparticles.