Large-Scale Inhomogeneous Fluorescence Plasmonic Silver Chips: Origin and Mechanism
Liang-Yan Hsu*, Hung-Chi Yen, Ming-Wei Lee, Yae-Lin Sheu, Po-Chun Chen, Hongjie Dai*, Chia-Chun Chen*
Chem, 2020, 6, 3396-3408.
Large-scale inhomogeneous plasmonic metal chips have been demonstrated as a promisingplatform for biochemical sensing, but the origin of their strong fluorescence enhancementsand average gap dependence is a challenging issue due to the complexity of modelingtremendous molecules within inhomogeneous gaps. To address this issue, we bridgedmicroscopic mechanisms and macroscopic observations, developed a kinetic model, andexperimentally investigated the fluorescence enhancement factors of IR800-streptavidinimmobilized on metal nanoisland films (NIFs). Inspired by the kinetic model, we controlledthe distribution of IR800-streptavidin within the valleys of NIFs by regioselectivemodification and achieved the fluorescence intensity enhancement up to 488-fold. Thekinetic model allows us to qualitatively explain the mechanism of fluorescence intensityenhancements and quantitatively predict the trend of experimental enhancement factors,thereby determining the design principles of the plasmonic metal chips. Our studyprovides one key step further toward the sensing applications of large-scale plasmonicmetal chips.