Enhanced Lanthanide Luminescence Using Silver Nanostructures: Opportunities for a New Class of Probes with Exceptional Spectral Characteristics

Abstract

The photophysical effects of europium tetracycline immobilized in thin polyvinyl alcohol films coated onto silver nanostructures have been investigated. Complimentary to recent reports from our laboratories that the close proximity of luorophores to silver nanostructures can enhance their intrinsic radiative decay rate, we show that up to a 16-fold enhancement in lanthanide luminescence is possible, accompanied by a notable reduction in luminescence lifetime. These results suggest the potential future development of a new class of significantly brighter lanthanide based probes with exceptional spectral properties, which can probably undergo significantly more excitation-emission event cycles due to the reduced lifetime, substantially increasing detectability.

Influence of colloidal-gold films on the luminescence of Eu(TTFA)3 in PMMA

“…The competition between quenching and enhancing effects is well exemplified in the body of work on the effect of silver nanoparticles and silver island films (SIF) on the luminescence properties of Eu 3 + -based phosphors [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. The consensus appears to be that a net (and typically modest) enhancement of Eu 3 + ( 5 D 0 ) emission can be achieved using SIFs and colloidal films of interacting Ag nanostructures, whereas the effect of isolated Ag nanoparticles is less consistent.…”

Quantitative Comparison of Protein Surface Coverage on Glass Slides and Silver Island Films in Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence-based Biosensing Applications

“…Since the fluorescence emission from SIFs is significantly larger than those from blank glass slides, the contribution of fluorophore / protein coverage to the increased fluorescence emission has to be determined for accurate evaluation of metal nanoparticle-deposited surfaces for MEF applications. Despite the presence of numerous publications on MEF phenomenon [16-18] and MEF-based applications [15, 19, 20], the quantitative comparison of fluorophore or protein surface coverage on SIFs and blank glass slides was never investigated.…”

Metal-enhanced fluorescence of lanthanide chelates near silver nanostructured films

“…Numerous novel lanthanide complexes have been synthesized by different methods [14][15][16]. It has been shown that the luminescence of lanthanide complexes can be enhanced by silver island films deposited on quartz or glass slides [17].…”

“…Numerous novel lanthanide complexes have been synthesized by different methods [14][15][16]. It has been shown that the luminescence of lanthanide complexes can be enhanced by silver island films deposited on quartz or glass slides [17].In this paper, a detailed investigation of MEF from lanthanide chelates near continuous Ag thin films and noncontinuous Ag island surfaces is reported. The fluorescence emission of the lanthanide chelates was approximately 2.5 times more intense on a continuous silver thin film than on a quartz substrate.…”