Preparation of Au@4-nitrothiophenol@Ag@bovine serum albumin internal surface-enhanced Raman scattering tags and its application in cell Raman imaging

Abstract

This study explored a strategy of replacing the surface stabilizer of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) on the tag surface with bovine serum albumin (BSA) and developed a BSA coated Au@4-nitrothiophenol(NT)@Ag internal surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) tag Au@NT@Ag@BSA. The Au@NT@Ag@BSA tag retained the monodispersity and high sensitivity of the original tag, while significantly improving the signal stability and biocompatibility. Furthermore, labeling and Raman spectroscopic imaging of SMMC7721 lung cancer cells were realized by the incubation of the cells with the Au@NT@Ag@BSA SERS tags. The results demonstrated that the proposed Au@NT@Ag@BSA internal SERS tags had good potential for in vivo imaging applications.