Improved vapor selectivity and stability of localized surface plasmon resonance with a surfactant-coated Au nanoparticles film.

Here, we report the use of tetraoctylammonium bromide (TOABr)-coated Au nanoparticles (NPs) for the optical sensing of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). We find that the film responded selectively to the presence of polar and nonpolar vapors by changes in the maximum wavelength (λ(max)) toward higher and lower wavelengths, respectively, as determined by UV-visible spectroscopy. We also observed that the organic coating reorganizes when vapors partition into the film indicated by FT-IR and the film contracts in the presence of water indicated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In the present sensor, the metallic Au core serves as the plasmonic signal while the organic coating acts as the receptor material providing vapor selectivity and sensor stability. Correlating changes in (λ(max)) with changes in the refractive index (RI) and nanoparticle-to-nanoparticle separation in the film is important both fundamentally and for improving selectivity in localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensors.

Synergy between graphene and Au nanoparticles (heterojunction) towards quenching, improving Raman signal, and UV light sensing.

Here, we developed a simple method for obtaining a heterojunction composed of graphene (G) and surfactant-coated Au nanoparticles (NPs) to measure film conductivity and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Monolayer G is obtained by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and transferred via poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) to microfabricated Au electrodes, glass, and silicon. Post-synthesis treatments of G with PMMA and ozone (O3) showed 1 and 6 orders of magnitude decrease in film conductivity, respectively. The heterojunction formation with Au NPs had no major effect on G conductivity. In this work is demonstrated that G quenches more than 90% of the combined photoluminescence and fluorescence of Au NPs and Rhodamine B (RhB), respectively. Signal quenching permitted quantitative analysis of SERS of RhB on various substrates including as-transferred graphene, oxidized graphene (OG), and the heterojunction. While G is mainly responsible for quenching photoluminescence and fluorescence, ∼3 orders of magnitude increase SERS activity for RhB was accomplished by the heterojunction. Finally, we wanted to correlate changes in film current during UV light sensing experiments. We found striking differences in the sensing profiles at different UV energies.