title: SERS-active Au/SiO2 clouds in powder for rapid ex vivo breast adenocarcinoma diagnosis.
abstract: In the present work, we report a dry-based application technique of Au/SiO2 clouds in powder for rapid ex vivo adenocarcinoma diagnosis through surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS); using low laser power and an integration time of one second. Several characteristic Raman peaks frequently used for the diagnosis of breast adenocarcinoma in the range of the amide III are successfully enhanced by breading the tissue with Au/SiO2 powder. The SERS activity of these Au/SiO2 powders is attributed to their rapid rehydration upon contact with the wet tissues, which promotes the formation of gold nanoparticle aggregates. The propensity of the Au/SiO2 cloud structures to adsorb biomolecules in the vicinity of the gold nanoparticle clusters promotes the necessary conditions for SERS detection. In addition, electron microscopy, together with elemental analysis, have been used to confirm the structure of the new Au/SiO2 cloud material and to investigate its distribution in breast tissues.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigaciones en Óptica, León, Gto., C.P. 37150, Mexico.
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cepeda-Pérez
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigaciones en Óptica, León, Gto., C.P. 37150, Mexico.
authors.forename: Tzarara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: López-Luke
authors.affiliation: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Centro de Física Aplicada y Tecnología Avanzada, Querétaro 76000, Mexico.
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Salas
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, USA.
authors.forename: Germán
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Plascencia-Villa
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, USA.
authors.forename: Arturo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ponce
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd. Charlotte, NC 28223, USA.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vivero-Escoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, USA.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: José-Yacamán
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigaciones en Óptica, León, Gto., C.P. 37150, Mexico.
authors.forename: Elder
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de la Rosa
keywords: (160.4236) Nanomaterials; (170.6935) Tissue characterization; (300.6450) Spectroscopy, Raman