Richard Gray's Blog – February 2024 Archive (2)

Hydrogel is a three-dimensional network of hydrophilic polymers that swells in water without dissolving. Because the polymer contains a large number of hydrophilic groups, the hydrogel can absorb and lock a large amount of water. After absorbing water, the hydrogel network can maintain its original shape without being destroyed. Hydrogels are widely used in tissue engineering, drug delivery, biosensing, etc. due to their simple preparation, strong tunability of mechanical properties, good…

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) are two key surface plasmon technologies that ultimately enable single-molecule-level chemical and biological sensors. Due to the tremendous progress in solution-based synthesis methods, plasmonic nanoparticles with various complex shapes (e.g., spheres, rods, and prisms) have been widely used for surface plasmon resonance and surface-enhanced Raman scattering sensing. Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR)…