Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has extended its biomedical application to in vivo preclinical imaging. However, the in vivo SERS imaging requires non-clearable large gold nanoparticles, limiting their translation in humans.
Here, we address this problem by creating SERS supraparticles composed of small-sized nanoclusters. First, we performed the FDTD simulation of the supraparticle design, and the maximum enhancement factor of 10^6 was achieved. Second, we chemically synthesized bright supraparticles that enabled in vivo Raman imaging of rodent models. Furthermore, the supraparticles were highly excretable, offering great potential for clinical application of in vivo Raman imaging by replacing non-excretable SERS nanotags.
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