Wing-Cheung Law
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China
Title: Novel plasmonic sensing strategy based on semiconductor nanocrystals
Biography
Biography: Wing-Cheung Law
Abstract
Nanoparticle-mediated sensing has become a major focus of research activity in recent years. The distinct features of the variety of nanoparticles have attracted significant attention in the chemical/biological sensing communities due to their capability of sensitivity improvement. It is important to know that a fast, reliable, high-sensitivity and cost effective biosensor would enable us to effectively impede the harmful substances around us, preventing potential disastrous outcomes. Recently, Luther et al. demonstrated that the absorbance obtained from the cation-deficient semiconductors results from LSPR of free holes. They found that in the case of Cu2-xS, the wavelength of the LSPR absorbance peak is very sensitive to the concentration of free holes. The Manna group investigated the possibility of reversibly tuning the absorption band of Cu2-xSe. They could tune the hole-implicated LSPR peak of Cu2-xSe by oxidizing the NCs using a cerium (IV) complex. These novel nanocrystals have also been shown to have potential in biomedical applications. Hessel et al. and Liu et al. have shown the potential of Cu2–xSe as a potent photothermal therapeutic agent, and as a powerful contrast agent for photoacoustic imaging, respectively. However, these heavily doped semiconductor NCs have not yet been used for chemical sensing purposes. In this abstract, detection and quantification of heavy metal ion (e.g.Pb2+) using Cu2-xS NC will be introduced.