Bioconjugated gold nanorods to enhance the sensitivity of FT-SPR-based biosensors

In this paper, we report a feasible solvent-free approach for the synthesis and self-assembling of gold nanorods after bioconjugation to antibodies; scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images revealed a remarkable shape and size narrow distribution, as well as a tendency to form linear assemblies on a clean gold surface, upon interaction with antibodies. These bioconjugated gold nanorods were in turns tested in a model Fourier Transform Surface Plasmon Resonance (FT-SPR)-based immunosensor, leading to an improvement of the detection sensitivity by a factor of 8. The results highlight the simplicity of the synthesis protocol of gold nanorods and the interest of using them as labels to enhance the sensitivity of SPR-based sensors.