Gold nanorods as nanotransducers to monitor the growth and swelling of ultrathin polymer films. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • In this work, we demonstrate that plasmonic nanostructures can be employed as nanoscale transducers to monitor the growth and phase transitions in ultrathin polymer films. In particular, gold nanorods with high refractive index sensitivity (~150 nm/refractive index unit (RIU)) were employed to probe the growth and swelling of polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEM). By comparing the wavelength shift and extinction intensity increase of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of the gold nanorods coated with PEM in air and water, the swelling of PEM was estimated to be 26% 6%. The swelling was quantitatively confirmed with independent thickness measurement of PEM in dry and swollen states using AFM. The deployment of shape-controlled metal nanostructures with high refractive index sensitivity represents a novel and facile approach for monitoring the phase transition in polymers with nanoscale resolution.

published proceedings

  • Nanotechnology

author list (cited authors)

  • Tian, L., Fei, M., Kattumenu, R., Abbas, A., & Singamaneni, S.

citation count

  • 11

complete list of authors

  • Tian, Limei||Fei, Max||Kattumenu, Ramesh||Abbas, Abdennour||Singamaneni, Srikanth

publication date

  • January 2012