Layer-by-layer accumulation of cadmium sulfide core—silica shell nanoparticles and size-selective photoetching to make adjustable void space between core and shell

Silanization of polyelectrolyte-coated particles: an effective route to stabilize Raman tagging molecules adsorbed on micrometer-sized silver particles

Micrometer-sized Ag (microAg) powders are very efficient surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates. To use microAg powders as a core material for molecular sensors operating via SERS, it is necessary to stabilize the tagging (i.e., SERS-marker) molecules adsorbed onto them. We demonstrate in this work that once the tagging molecules are coated with aliphatic polyelectrolytes such as poly(allylamine hydrochloride), the base-catalyzed silanization can be readily carried out to form stable silica shells around the polyelectrolyte layers by a biomimetic process; any particle can therefore be coated with silica since polyelectrolytes can be deposited beforehand via a layer-by-layer deposition method. Even after silanization, the SERS peaks of marker molecules on microAg particles are the only observable peaks since aliphatic polyelectrolytes, as well as silica shells, are intrinsically weak Raman scatterers, and more importantly, the SERS signals must be derived mostly from the first layer of the adsorbates (i.e., the marker molecules) in direct contact with the microAg particles. Silica shells, once fabricated, can further be derivatized to possess biofunctional groups; therefore, the modified microAg particles can be used as platforms of highly stable SERS-based biological sensors, as well as barcoding materials.

Stabilization of hydroxyl-group-terminated SERS-marker molecules on μAg particles by silanization

Micrometer-sized Ag (microAg) powders are very efficient substrates for both the infrared and Raman spectroscopic characterization of molecular adsorbates assembled on silver. In particular, the Raman spectrum of organic monolayers on microAg powders is a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectrum. To use microAg powders as a core material for constructing molecular sensing/recognition units operating via SERS, it is first necessary to stabilize the SERS-marker molecules that are directly in contact with the microAg powders. One promising strategy is the fabrication of silica shells onto SERS-marker molecules, and herein we demonstrate its feasibility by choosing 4-mercaptophenol (4-MPH) as a model SERS-marker molecule. Due to the presence of the hydroxyl group of 4-MPH, silica was readily deposited onto microAg particles by the base-catalyzed hydrolysis of tetraethyl orthosilicate, and its subsequent condensation, to form a cagelike structure. The formation of silica shells was confirmed with infrared, Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, coupled with field emission scanning electron microscopy. We were able to tune the thickness of silica shells simply by varying the silanization reaction time.