Sr. Emory et S. Nie, SCREENING AND ENRICHMENT OF METAL NANOPARTICLES WITH NOVEL OPTICAL-PROPERTIES, JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY B, 102(3), 1998, pp. 493-497
A rapid screening and enrichment method is reported for exploring the
size and shape diversities (libraries) of nanometer-scale colloidal pa
rticles. With the use of surface-enhanced Raman scattering, a new clas
s of metal nanoparticles has been identified from heterogeneous silver
colloids. These particles are relatively large, faceted nanocrystals
that are able to enhance the efficiencies of surface optical processes
by as much as 14-15 orders of magnitude. The population of these nove
l nanoparticles is only about 0.1-1% in standard colloid preparations
but can be enriched to about 10-15% by size-selective fractionation. T
his new class of nanoparticles could find potential uses in optoelectr
onic devices, ultrasensitive chemical sensors, and single-molecule det
ection.