title: Plasmonic Biofoam: A Versatile Optically Active Material.
abstract: Owing to their ability to confine and manipulate light at the nanoscale, plasmonic nanostructures are highly attractive for a broad range of applications. While tremendous progress has been made in the synthesis of size- and shape-controlled plasmonic nanostructures, their integration with other materials and application in solid-state is primarily through their assembly on rigid two-dimensional (2D) substrates, which limits the plasmonically active space to a few nanometers above the substrate. In this work, we demonstrate a simple method to create plasmonically active three-dimensional biofoams by integrating plasmonic nanostructures with highly porous biomaterial aerogels. We demonstrate that plasmonic biofoam is a versatile optically active platform that can be harnessed for numerous applications including (i) ultrasensitive chemical detection using surface-enhanced Raman scattering; (ii) highly efficient energy harvesting and steam generation through plasmonic photothermal heating; and (iii) optical control of enzymatic activity by triggered release of biomolecules encapsulated within the aerogel. Our results demonstrate that 3D plasmonic biofoam exhibits significantly higher sensing, photothermal, and loading efficiency compared to conventional 2D counterparts. The design principles and processing methodology of plasmonic aerogels demonstrated here can be broadly applied in the fabrication of other functional foams.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis , St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States.
authors.forename: Limei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis , St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States.
authors.forename: Jingyi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luan
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis , St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States.
authors.forename: Keng-Ku
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis , St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States.
authors.forename: Qisheng
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis , St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States.
authors.forename: Sirimuvva
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tadepalli
authors.forename: Maneesh K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Rajesh R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Naik
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis , St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States.
authors.forename: Srikanth
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Singamaneni
mesh_terms: D002482:Cellulose / Q000737:chemistry*; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry; D008027:Light; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance
chemical_list: D006046:Gold; D002482:Cellulose
keywords: Plasmonic biofoam; bacterial nanocellulose; localized surface plasmon resonance; photothermal; surface enhanced Raman scattering