Plasmonic detection and visualization of directed adsorption of charged single nanoparticles to patterned surfaces

It has recently been shown that surface plasmon microscopy (SPM) allows single nanoparticles (NPs) on sensor surfaces to be detected and analyzed. The authors have applied this technique to study the adsorption of single metallic and plastic NPs. Binding of gold NPs (40, 60 and 100 nm in size) and of 100 nm polystyrene NPs to gold surfaces modified by differently ω-functionalized alkyl thiols was studied first. Self-assembled monolayers (SAM) with varying terminal functions including amino, carboxy, oligo(ethylene glycol), methyl, or trimethylammonium groups were deposited on gold films to form surfaces possessing different charge and hydrophobicity. The affinity of NPs to these surfaces depends strongly on the type of coating. SAMs terminated with trimethylammonium groups and carboxy group display highly different affinity and therefore were preferred when creating patterned charged surfaces. Citrate-stabilized gold NPs and sulfate-terminated polystyrene NPs were used as negatively charged NPs, while branched polyethylenimine-coated silver NPs were used as positively charged NPs. It is shown that the charged patterned areas on the gold films are capable of selectively adsorbing oppositely charged NPs that can be detected and analyzed with an ~1 ng⋅mL^-1 detection limit. Graphical abstractSelf-assembled monolayers of ω-functionalized alkyl thiols were deposited on a gold layer of a patterned sensor array. The charge-selective binding of single nanoparticles to such surfaces was registered by wide-field surface plasmon microscopy.