Near-Infrared Responsive Ag@Au Nanoplates with Exceptional Stability for Highly Sensitive Colorimetric and Photothermal Dual-Mode Lateral Flow Immunoassay

Abstract

Lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) has played a vital role in point-of-care (POC) testing on account of its simplicity, rapidity, and low cost. However, the low sensitivity and difficulty of quantitation limit its further development. Sensitive markers with new detection modes are being developed to dramatically improve LFIA's performance. Herein, a ligand-complex approach was proposed to uniformly coat a thin layer of Au onto Ag triangular nanoplates (Ag TNPs) without etching the Ag cores, which not only retain the unique optical properties from Ag TNPs but also acquire the surface stability and biocompatibility of gold. The localized surface plasmon resonance absorption of these Ag@Au TNPs could be finely adjusted from visible (550 nm) to the second nearinfrared region (NIR-II) (1100 nm), and even longer, by simply adjusting the ratio between edge length and thickness. Utilizing the Ag@ Au TNPs as new markers for LFIA, a highly sensitive colorimetric and photothermal dual-mode detection of the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein was achieved with a very low background. The Ag@Au TNPs showed an exceedingly high photothermal conversion efficiency of 61.4% (ca. 2 times higher than that of Au nanorods), endowing the LFIA method with a low photothermal detection limit (40 pg/mL), which was 25-fold lower than that of the colorimetric results. The generality of the method was further verified by the sensitive and accurate analysis of cardiac troponin I (cTnI). This method is robust, reproducible, and highly specific and has been successfully applied to SARS-COV-2 detection in 35 clinical samples with satisfactory results, demonstrating its potential for POC applications.

Smart responsive in situ hydrogel systems applied in bone tissue engineering

“…The NIR spectrum belongs to the frequency multiplier and main frequency absorption spectrum of the molecular vibration spectrum due to the non-resonance of the molecular vibration (the molecular vibration is generated when the molecular vibration transitions from the ground state to the high energy level). The NIR possesses a strong penetration ability because of its special physical properties ( Wang K. et al, 2024 ). In addition, NIR, without being strongly absorbed by body fluid, presents better tissue transparency than other wavelengths and is an ideal candidate for designing light-responsive in situ hydrogels ( Raza et al, 2019 ).…”