Quantifying Surface Temperature of Thermoplasmonic Nanostructures

• Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society Vol. 140; no. 42; pp. 13680 - 13686
• Main Authors: Hu, Shu, Liu, Bi-Ju, Feng, Jia-Min, Zong, Cheng, Lin, Kai-Qiang, Wang, Xiang, Wu, De-Yin, Ren, Bin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 24.10.2018
• ISSN: 0002-7863; 1520-5126
• DOI: 10.1021/jacs.8b06083

Precise measurement of the temperature right at the surface of thermoplasmonic nanostructures is a grand challenge but extremely important for the photochemical reaction and photothermal therapy. We present here a method capable of measuring the surface temperature of plasmonic nanostructures with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, which is not achievable by existing methods. We observe a sensitive shift of stretching vibration of a phenyl isocyanide molecule with temperature (0.232 cm–1/°C) as a result of the temperature-dependent molecular orientation change. We develop this phenomenon into a method capable of measuring the surface temperature of Au nanoparticles (NPs) during plasmonic excitation, which is validated by monitoring the laser-induced desorption process of the adsorbed CO on Au NP surface. We further extend the method into a more demanding single living cell thermometry that requires a high spatial resolution, which allows us to successfully monitor the extracellular temperature distribution of a single living cell experiencing cold resistance and the intracellular temperature change during the calcium ion transport process.