Anisotropic nanomaterials, such as gold nanorods (AuNRs),
could
be employed as an orientation platform due to their polarization-dependent
surface plasmon resonance. However, a variety of factors would affect
the dark-field light scattering imaging of anisotropic nanomaterials,
resulting in an unstable signal, which is not advantageous to its
further application. In this work, the localized surface plasmon resonance
properties of a few AuNRs at different angles were excited by polarization
with a conventional dark-field microscope, in which it was found that
the ratio of AuNRs’ light scattering intensity at different
polarization angles (I) to that without a polarizer
(I
0) reflected the orientation information
of AuNRs. Furthermore, the light scattering signal ratio between the
parallel polarization (I
p) and that without
a polarizer (I
0) was closely related with
the aspect ratio of AuNRs, which could not be affected by external
conditions. To verify this concept, a highly sensitive and selective
assay of the alkaline phosphatase activity in human serum was successfully
developed based on the chemical etching of AuNRs, resulting in a lower
aspect ratio and a lesser I
p/I
0. This result holds great promise for polarization-dependent
colorimetric nanomaterials and single-particle tracers in living cells.