Plasmonic Nanoparticles for Biological applications

Noble metal nanoparticles have very different properties from those in the massive state. The most spectacular is the unique optical properties originating from the Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance. This phenomenon results in a very intense absorption band around 520 nm for Gold spherical particles 15 nm in diameter. The position of this band, which can be monitored by UV-Visible spectroscopy, depends naturally on the metal, but also on the medium, particularly its dielectric constant, the size and shape of the particle and also the interactions between particles. The plasmon effect leads to the creation, in the vicinity of nanoparticles, of a very intense electric field that leads to an exaltation of the response of certain vibrational spectroscopies, in particular Raman spectroscopy, a phenomenon that gave rise to Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS).

We synthesize a large panel of plasmonic nanoparticles ranging from spherical Gold or Silver, Hollow nanoshells, Gold nanorods, Core-shell Gold Silver and Silver Gold.