メールマガジンEmail Magazine

01/05/2024

Report
We held an in-house Nanophoton seminar

Nanophoton regularly holds seminars inviting researchers in various fields, always deepening our knowledge of cutting-edge research and technologies. This time, we invited Dr. Nobuyuki Takeyasu, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Science, Okayama University, to our Osaka Showroom to give a lecture titled “Fabrication of Noble Metal Nanostructures Using Bottom-up Method and SERS Applications.” (Newsletter Editor / Ryo Harada)

Dr. Takeyasu (top left) speaks enthusiastically. Not only technical members but also Chairman Kawata and other members of the sales department participated in the seminar to deepen their knowledge.

“Fabrication of Noble Metal Nanostructures Using Bottom-up Method and SERS Applications.”

Since Raman scattering light is extremely weak, it is usually difficult to measure Raman scattering light from small amounts of molecules. However, Raman scattering light from a small amount of molecules attached to a nanostructured metal substrate is enhanced by a factor of about 104-5 times more than usual and can be observed. This phenomenon is called “Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS)” and has been studied extensively since the late 1970s. Although SERS itself is now widely known, the reproducibility of the measurement still remains an issue. Therefore, various studies have been conducted on how to fabricate metallic nanostructures for stable SERS measurements.

Dr. Takeyasu has used his background in chemistry to develop a method for the self-assembly of metallic nanostructures using reduction reactions. In his talk, he presented two types of metal nanostructure fabrication methods and the results of SERS measurements using each. The first is a metal nanoparticle film in which the spacing between the metal nanoparticles is appropriately controlled. The second is silver nanodendritic structures. Dendritic structures are self-similar (fractal) structures in which small leaves gather to form medium-sized leaves, which gather to form even larger leaves, like the leaves of a fern. The silver nanodendritic structure contains silver nanorods of various lengths, which would enable SERS measurements for a wide range of laser wavelengths. Both fabrication methods are bottom-up approaches suitable for mass production, which was very interesting for the company.

The seminar was very successful with lively discussions.
We will make use of what we learned this time to promote better product development.

（Translated by DeepL）