Final Report Summary - SINGLESENS (Single metal nanoparticles as molecular sensors)
The main objectives of this project were to develop and explore single-particle plasmon spectroscopy as a novel tool to study such molecular processes. We have built setups progressing far beyond previous technology. With those we have increased time resolution, spectral sensitivity, and parallelization capability many orders of magnitude. Five years ago, collecting a single particle plasmon spectrum took several seconds and resulted in an accuracy of the peak position of more than one nanometer. Statistics were typically recorded on 10-20 particles. Now, we routinely record particle spectra in less than one millisecond, investigate 100-1000 particles within one sample and archive spectral accuracies well below 0.1nm.
We have synthesized nanoparticles with optimal plasmon sensing properties, and simulated plasmon properties to guide the experiments and understand the physics behind the observed phenomena. The single-particle plasmon spectroscopy technique has been demonstrated for single protein detection, the parallel detection of many analytes in a multiplexed microfluidic device, and for biophysical studies of oscillating molecular systems. Electrochemical and biochemical applications are in the process of being published.
The broad range of possible applications, some of which were not anticipated at the start of the project (e.g. drug screening) makes us considering commercialization of the developed techniques.