Nano Endoscopy with Plasmon-Enhanced Fluorescence for Sensitive Sensing Inside Ultrasmall Volume Samples

Anal Chem. 2017 Jan 17;89(2):1045-1048. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.6b03876. Epub 2016 Dec 29.

Abstract

Plasmon-enhanced fluorescence (PEF) generally requires the samples settled on a metal substrate and the effective enhancement distance is less than 100 nm, which limit its application in intracellular sensing. Herein, we report a nano endoscopy with PEF effect for sensing analytes inside the extremely small volume samples. The nano endoscopy was fabricated by assembling single nanoporous gold nanowire (PGNW) on the tip of a tungsten needle. It was accurately manipulated to insert into a micro droplet, and an effective sensing was realized at micrometre scale with submicrometer resolution. By taking lysozyme as a model sensing target, a 23-fold improvement of sensitivity was obtained, comparing with that of smooth gold nanowire (SGNW). These results indicated that the nano endoscopy can realize a high spatial resolution sensing, showing its potential application in intracellular sensing.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Aptamers, Nucleotide / chemistry*
  • Carbocyanines / chemistry
  • Chickens
  • Endoscopy / instrumentation*
  • Equipment Design
  • Fluorescence
  • Fluorescent Dyes / chemistry
  • Gold / chemistry*
  • Muramidase / analysis*
  • Nanowires / chemistry*
  • Porosity
  • Surface Plasmon Resonance / instrumentation*

Substances

  • Aptamers, Nucleotide
  • Carbocyanines
  • Fluorescent Dyes
  • cyanine dye 5
  • Gold
  • Muramidase