Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: ABSTRACT Gold nanostructures with branched morphologies exhibit strong plasmonic properties, enabling advanced biosensing and biochemical applications. Here, we report a rapid and scalable synthesis of gold nanoflowers (AuNFs) using modified benzenethiols as both reducing and capping agents. Benzenethiols bearing electron‐donating substituents promoted rapid Au 3+ reduction and anisotropic branch growth, completing particle formation in less than 10 s without seed preparation or organic‐aqueous transfer steps. The resulting AuNFs had abundant plasmonic hot spots and intrinsic Raman reporters, serving as dual‐modality probes for colorimetry and surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). When integrated into lateral flow assays, AuNFs markedly enhanced analytical sensitivity. In oxycodone detection, limits of detection reached 4.48 pg/mL (colorimetry) and 0.38 fg/mL (SERS), representing 700‐fold and 1,200‐fold improvements, respectively, over spherical gold nanoparticles. This performance enabled accurate quantification of oxycodone in plasma samples from murine addiction models. The developed method provides a practical route for preparing high‐performance plasmonic nanomaterials for applications in biosensing, catalysis, and analytical chemistry.
Source: Small
DOI: 10.1002/smll.75234
Language: English
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: Imaging and Liquid Biopsy for Glioma Diagnosis and Treatment Monitoring, Strategies to define and mitigate the placental and fetal alterations caused by maternal oxycodone exposure, G9000018451, G9000028784, G9000029313, G9000099154, G9000130347, Empowering cancer detection and monitoring with CampEx - CRISPR-accelerated molecular profiling of Extracellular vesicles, High-throughput Phenotyping of iPSC-derived Airway Epithelium by Multiscale Machine Learning Microscopy, Streamlining sample preparation with high throughput SpinEx (Separation processing integration for Extracellular vesicles), Cerebral organoid and IPSC derived microglia: Modeling of HIV and methamphetamine co-morbidity, Expanding early cancer detection with high throughput OCEANA - Ovarian Cancer Exosome Analysis with Nanoplasmonic Array, Composing CODAs to cervical cancer screening through an integrated CRISPR and fluorescent nucleic acid approach
OpenAlex ID: W7203726838