Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and dynamic light scattering (QLS) are used to characterize the aggregates found upon dilution of mixed lecithin-bile salt micelles. Molar ratios of lecithin (L) to taurocholate (TC) studied varied from 0.1 to 1, and one series contained cholesterol (Ch). Mixed aggregates of L and taurodeoxycholate (TDC) at ratios of 0.4 and 1 were also examined. In all cases the micelles are cylindrical or globular and elongate upon dilution. The radius of the mixed micelles varies only slightly with the overall composition of lecithin and bile salt which indicates that the composition of the cylindrical micelle body is nearly constant. The transition from micelles to vesicles is a smooth transformation involving a region where micelles and vesicles coexist. SANS measurements are more sensitive to the presence of two aggregate populations than QLS. Beyond the coexistence region the vesicle size and degree of polydispersity decrease with dilution. Incorporation of a small amount of cholesterol in the lipid mixture does not affect the sequence of observed aggregate structures.
The rational manipulation of morphology and architecture of the plasmonic metal/semiconductor hybrids is quite important to improve their SERS performance by optimizing the electromagnetic enhancement and charge transfer. Herein, PbS-Au...
The regulation of near-field enhancement of plasmonic nanostructures is very important for plasmon-enhanced spectroscopy. Herein, structure-adjustable Au nanodumbbells (NDs) are prepared via a wet-chemistry method and applied for plasmon-enhanced surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and second-harmonic generation (SHG). The as-prepared Au NDs show much stronger visible-light absorption and near-field enhancements owing to the enlarged ends. Therefore, Au NDs exhibit much higher SERS response than Au nanorods (9.7-fold enhancement) on detecting Rhodamine B excited by a 532 nm laser. Subsequently, Au NDs are transferred to an ultrasmooth Au film to form particle-on-film systems, which display two kinds of plasmonic nanocavities due to the wrapped surfactant and two raised ends. The Au ND-involved particle-on-film systems show further improved SERS performances. This is because the near-field enhancement around the end region of Au NDs can be further improved by the strong plasmon coupling between Au NDs and the film. Meanwhile, the other nanocavity around the middle surface of Au NDs can also generate strong near-field enhancement for amplifying Raman signals. Most interestingly, by precisely adjusting the end size of Au NDs, the extinction cross section and nearfield enhancements at the fundamental and double frequencies of Au NDs simultaneously reach the maximum. As a result, the Au NDs exhibit double-resonantly improved SHG, which has a 10.3-fold enhancement compared with Au nanorods.
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