Communication
Alkyne-Functionalized Superstable Graphitic Silver Nanoparticles for
Raman Imaging
Zhi-Ling Song,† Zhuo Chen,*,† Xia Bian,† Li-Yi Zhou,† Ding Ding,† Hao Liang,† Yu-Xiu Zou,†
Shan-Shan Wang,† Long Chen,§ Chao Yang,† Xiao-Bing Zhang,*,† and Weihong Tan*,†,‡
†Molecular Sciences and Biomedicine Laboratory, State Key Laboratory for Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of
Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, College of Biology and Collaborative Innovation Center for Molecular Engineering and
Theronastics, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
‡Department of Chemistry and Department of Physiology and Functional Genomics, Center for Research at Bio/nano Interface,
Shands Cancer Center, UF Genetics Institute and McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611-7200,
United States
§Faculty of Sciences, University of Macau, Av. Padre Tomas
́
Pereira Taipa, Macau, China
S
* Supporting Information
graphene on a quartz substrate could not be penetrated by sulfur
ABSTRACT: Noble metals, especially gold, have been
widely used in plasmon resonance applications. Although
silver has a larger optical cross section and lower cost than
gold, it has attracted much less attention because of its easy
corrosion, thereby degrading plasmonic signals and
limiting its applications. To circumvent this problem, we
report the facile synthesis of superstable AgCu@graphene
(ACG) nanoparticles (NPs). The growth of several layers
of graphene onto the surface of AgCu alloy NPs effectively
protects the Ag surface from contamination, even in the
presence of hydrogen peroxide, hydrogen sulfide, and
nitric acid. The ACG NPs have been utilized to enhance
the unique Raman signals from the graphitic shell, making
ACG an ideal candidate for cell labeling, rapid Raman
imaging, and SERS detection. ACG is further function-
alized with alkyne-polyethylene glycol, which has strong
Raman vibrations in the Raman-silent region of the cell,
leading to more accurate colocalization inside cells. In sum,
this work provides a simple approach to fabricate
corrosion-resistant, water-soluble, and graphene-protected
AgCu NPs having a strong surface plasmon resonance
effect suitable for sensing and imaging.
compounds. Kalyanaraman found that a Ag−Co bimetallic
structure had more stable plasmonic characteristics than pure Ag
on a quartz substrate. Although their approaches retained the
plasmonic properties of Ag, the preparation processes were
complicated, and because of the solid substrate, the Ag
nanostructures were insoluble in water, which also limited their
applications, especially in bioimaging and biosensing.
One possible approach for fabricating superstable and soluble
Ag NPs involves encapsulating them in appropriate shells.
Indeed, graphene could be an ideal shell material based on its
superior chemical stability, mechanical capacity, optical proper-
ties, thermal stability, and electrical conductivity.5 More
importantly, graphene exhibits admirable impermeability for
small molecules, even helium atoms,6 and has emerged as one of
the most extensively studied nanomaterials.7 High-quality
graphene has been grown onto the surfaces of different transition
metal substrates (Cu, Ni, Pd, Pt, and Co)8 by chemical vapor
deposition (CVD). While it is difficult to grow graphene on the
surface of Ag because of its weak catalytic activity, the use of
inexpensive Cu could overcome this problem, since Cu catalyzes
the growth of graphene and Ag and Cu form good alloys. Here
we report the use of CVD to grow a few layers of graphene on the
surface of AgCu NPs to fabricate superstable graphitic Ag NPs.
The formation of few-layer graphene on the surface of Ag NPs
was catalyzed by Cu at high temperature. Sulfur compounds and
oxides could not penetrate the graphene to contaminate the
surface of Ag, and ACGs efficiently maintained the excellent
plasmonic properties of Ag, even in the presence of hydrogen
peroxide, hydrogen sulfide, and nitric acid.
oble metal nanoparticles have gained considerable
Nattention due to their outstanding optical properties. In
particular, gold nanoparticles (Au NPs), which possess strong
plasmonic properties through their long electronic relaxation,
have been applied in surface-enhanced Raman scattering
(SERS).1 Actually, silver has larger optical cross section and
lower cost than gold,2 making it a more suitable material for
plasmon resonance applications. However, Au is often preferred
because its surface is less susceptible to corrosion. More
specifically, Ag is easily affected by such ambient factors as O2
or H2S, forming silver oxide or silver sulfide on the surface,
thereby degrading plasmonic signals and limiting applications.3
To maintain the excellent properties of Ag, many efforts to
reduce corrosion have been explored.4 Cubukcu reported that
the surface of a Ag nanostructure passivated with a monolayer of
Such stable ACGs could be utilized for various plasmon
resonance applications, such as Raman imaging for intracellular
NP localization. SERS Raman imaging as an emerging field has
generated a lot of interest and applications. Raman-based
methods offer a powerful analytical tool that extends the
possibilities of vibrational spectroscopy with extremely high
sensitivity and multiplexing capabilities to solve more chemical
Received: July 23, 2014
Published: September 18, 2014
© 2014 American Chemical Society
13558
dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja507368z | J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 13558−13561