Starfruit-shaped nanorods perfect for medical imaging

Starfruit-shaped nanorods could be at the forefront of analytical chemistry for medical imaging and chemical sensing.

The fruit-like objects were synthesised by chemist Eugene Zubarev and Leonid Vigderman, a graduate student in his lab at Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative. The findings showed that the starfruit-shaped gold nanorods could nourish applications that rely on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS).

Particles returned 25 times stronger than similar nanorods with smooth surfaces, which could eventually make it possible to detect very small amounts of organic molecules such as DNA and biomarkers, found in bodily fluids, for particular diseases.

Mr Zubarev, an associate professor of chemistry said: “There’s a great deal of interest in sensing applications.

“SERS takes advantage of the ability of gold to enhance electromagnetic fields locally. Fields will concentrate at specific defects, like the sharp edges of our nanostarfruits, and that could help detect the presence of organic molecules at very low concentration.”

Posted by Ben Evans