@phdthesis{Mueller2011,
  author    = {M{\"u}ller, Christian},
  title     = {Physical Properties of Chromophore Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-57657},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2011},
  abstract  = {n this work the synthesis and analysis of chromophore functionalized spherical gold nanoparticles is presented. The optical, electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical properties of these hybrid materials are furthermore studied. The work therefore is divided into two parts. The first part deals with triarylamine and PCTM-radical functionalized gold nanoparticles. The focus thereby was on the synthesis and on the investigations of chromophore-chromophore interactions and gold core-chromophore interactions. The chromopores, especially triarylamines, were attached to the gold core via different bridging units and were studied with optical and electrochemical methods. The purity and dimensions of the nanoparticles was determined by 1H-NMR spectroscopy, diffusion ordered NMR spectroscopy (DOSY), TGA, XPS and STEM. Furthermore a cyclic voltammetry technique was used to determine the composition of the particles via the Randles-Sevcik equation. An analysis of these parameters led to a model of a sea urchin-shaped nanoparticle. Optical measurements of the particles revealed an anisotropic absorption behavior of the triarylamine units due to gold core-chromophore interaction. However this behavior depends strongly on the relative orientation of the transition dipole moment of the chromophore to the gold surface and the distance of the chromophore to the surface. Hence, the anisotropic behavior was exclusively detected in the spectra of the Au-Tara1 particles. The short and rigid pi-conjugated bridging unit thereby facilitates this gold core-chromophore interaction. It was shown from electrochemical investigations that the triarylamine units can be chemically reversibly oxidized to the triarylamine monoradical cation. Furthermore, the measurements revealed a strong interligand triarylamine-triarylamine interaction which was only seen for the Au-Tara1 particles. The long pi-conjugated bridging units of the Au-Tara2 and Au-Tara3 particles as well as the aliphatic bridging unit of Au-Tara4 prevent any detectable interligand interactions. One may conclude that both the gold core-chromophore and the interligand triarylamine-triarylamine interaction depend on the length and the rigidity of the bridging unit. The electron transfer behavior of the triarylamine units adsorbed onto the gold core was additionally studied via spectroelectrochemical (SEC) measurements which are able to reveal weaker interactions. The investigations of Au-Tara1 and Au-Tara2 revealed a significant strong coupling between neighboring triarylamine units which is due to through-space intervalence interactions. This behavior was not detected for Au-Tara3 or for Au-Tara4. The SEC analysis also revealed that these observed interligand interactions depend on the length and the rigidity of the bridging unit. Thus, the systematic variation of the bridging unit gave a basic insight in the optical and electrochemical properties of triarylamines, located in the vicinity of a gold nanoparticle. The second part of this work aimed at the synthesis of new molecules, denoted as SERS-markers, for immuno SERS applications. For this purpose, the SERS-markers were designed to have a Raman-active unit and a thiol group for chemisorptions to Au/Ag nanoshells. In cooperation with the group of Schl{\"u}cker (University of Osnabr{\"u}ck) the SERS-markers were absorbed onto Au/Ag nanoshells, denoted as SERS-labels, and characterized. The SERS spectra of the SERS-labels exhibited intense and characteristic SERS-signals for each marker. For immuno SERS investigations SEMA3 was functionalized with a hydrophilic end unit. This marker was adsorbed onto an Au/Ag nanoshell and encapsulated with silica. An anti-p63 antibody was bound to the silica surface in order to generate a SERS-labeled antibody for the detection of the tumor suppressor p63 in benign prostate. Immuno-SERS imaging of prostate tissue incubated with SERS-labeled anti-p63 antibodies demonstrated the selective detection of p63 in the basal epithelium. The results show the potential of the method for the detection of several biomolecules in a multiplexing SERS experiment.},
  subject      = {Gold},
  language  = {en}
}