Plasmon-dependent photophysical preparation of reversible Au@safranine T core-shell nanostructures with edit and erase features

Abstract

Core-shell materials have superior properties over their single-component counterparts, and thus how to develop a new type of core-shell structure deserves much hard work. Herein, a plasmon-dependent photophysical (PDPP) process was developed to prepare Au@Safranine T core-shell nanostructures with reversible properties, wherein Safranine T (ST) was at first adsorbed on the surface of negatively charged gold nanospheres (AuNSs) through the electrostatic attraction and then controllably deposited by adjusting plasmonic illumination. The whole PDPP process was monitored in real-time via dark field microscopy (DFM) imaging system, verifying that plasmon-dependent light-matter interaction occurs. The as-prepared Au@ST nanostructures were then successfully applied for a reversible process of edit and erase that was suitable for encryption application with nanosized precision. This research showed that the PDPP process has high promise for developing precise structures of new materials, particularly those through nanoprocessing and nanooperation.