Strong plasmonic fluorescence enhancement of individual plant light-harvesting complexes

Plasmonic coupling of metallic nanoparticles and adjacent pigments can dramatically increase the brightness of the pigments due to the enhanced local electric field. Here, we demonstrate that the fluorescence brightness of a single plant light-harvesting complex (LHCII) can be significantly enhanced...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nanoscale 2019-08, Vol.11 (32), p.15139-15146
Main Authors: Kyeyune, Farooq, Botha, Joshua L, van Heerden, Bertus, Malý, Pavel, van Grondelle, Rienk, Diale, Mmantsae, Krüger, Tjaart P. J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brightness
Chemical reactions
Electric fields
Emission analysis
Fluorescence
Gold
Gold - chemistry
Hybrid systems
Immobilized Proteins - chemistry
Immobilized Proteins - metabolism
Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes - chemistry
Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes - metabolism
Longitude
Microscopy, Electron, Transmission
Nanoparticles
Nanorods
Nanotubes - chemistry
Organic chemistry
Photosynthesis
Pigments
Plant Proteins - chemistry
Plant Proteins - metabolism
Plants - metabolism
Spectrophotometry
Surface Plasmon Resonance
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Summary:Plasmonic coupling of metallic nanoparticles and adjacent pigments can dramatically increase the brightness of the pigments due to the enhanced local electric field. Here, we demonstrate that the fluorescence brightness of a single plant light-harvesting complex (LHCII) can be significantly enhanced when coupled to a gold nanorod (AuNR). The AuNRs utilized in this study were prepared via chemical reactions, and the hybrid system was constructed using a simple and economical spin-assisted layer-by-layer technique. Enhancement of fluorescence brightness of up to 240-fold was observed, accompanied by a 109-fold decrease in the average (amplitude-weighted) fluorescence lifetime from approximately 3.5 ns down to 32 ps, corresponding to an excitation enhancement of 63-fold and emission enhancement of up to 3.8-fold. This large enhancement is due to the strong spectral overlap of the longitudinal localized surface plasmon resonance of the utilized AuNRs and the absorption or emission bands of LHCII. This study provides an inexpensive strategy to explore the fluorescence dynamics of weakly emitting photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes at the single molecule level. Plasmon-enhanced fluorescence for detection of weakly emitting individual photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes.
ISSN:2040-3364
2040-3372
DOI:10.1039/c9nr04558a