Tunable electrochemistry of gold-silver alloy nanoshells
Russo, Lorenzo (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Puntes, Víctor (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Merkoçi, Arben (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)

Date:	2018
Abstract:	The widespread and increasing interest in enhancing biosensing technologies by increasing their sensitivities and lowering their costs has led to the exploration and application of complex nanomaterials as signal transducers and enhancers. In this work, the electrochemical properties of monodispersed AuAg alloy nanoshells (NSs) with finely tunable morphology, composition, and size are studied to assess their potential as electroactive labels. The controlled corrosion of their silver content, caused by the oxidizing character of dissolved oxygen and chlorides of the electrolyte, allows the generation of a reproducible electrochemical signal that is easily measurable through voltammetric techniques. Remarkably, the underpotential deposition of dissolved Ag catalyzed on AuAg NS surfaces is observed and its dependence on the nanoparticle morphology, size, and elemental composition is studied, revealing a strong correlation between the relative amounts of the two metals. The highest catalytic activity is found at Au/Ag ratios higher than ≈ 10, showing how the synergy between both metals is necessary to trigger the enhancement of Ag reduction. The ability of AuAg NSs to generate an electrocatalytic current without the need for any strong acid makes them an extremely promising material for biosensing applications.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MAT2015-70725-R Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017/SGR-143 European Commission 685817 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad SEV-2013-0295
Rights:	Aquest material està protegit per drets d'autor i/o drets afins. Podeu utilitzar aquest material en funció del que permet la legislació de drets d'autor i drets afins d'aplicació al vostre cas. Per a d'altres usos heu d'obtenir permís del(s) titular(s) de drets.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Subject:	Au nanoshells ; Nanoparticles ; Surface chemistry ; Underpotential deposition
Published in:	Nano research, Vol. 11, Issue 12 (December 2018) , p. 6336-6345, ISSN 1998-0000

DOI: 10.1007/s12274-018-2157-y

Postprint 14 p, 1.1 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles