Gold Nanoparticles Assembled on Sliver Nanoprisms: Its Application to SERS-based DNA Detection in Aqueous Solutions

Abstract

In the past decades, DNA-modified gold nanoparticles have attracted widespread attention due to their novel biochemical properties, such as the excellent biocompatibility, the programmable sequences, and the ability to cooperatively hybridize complementary DNA. Silver triangular nanoparticles (referred to as “nanoprisms” or “NPRs”) is a kind of typical anisotropic nanomaterials that can produce massive localized plasmonic field enhancement at their tips, which makes them one of the ideal SERS substrate. Unfortunately, it has previously been demonstrated that the Ag NPRs are extremely sensitive to the changes of ion concentration, and their surfaces, especially the tips, are easily oxidized, which makes it difficult to obtain stable DNA-modified Ag NPRs, hampering its biomedical applications.