Amorphous silicon–carbon alloys for efficient localized surface plasmon resonance sensing

This paper describes a novel platform for preparing localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensing surfaces. It is based on the coating of gold nanostructures deposited on glass with an amorphous silicon–carbon alloy overcoating. The interest in coating the Au NSs with an amorphous silicon–carbon alloy resides in the possibility of incorporating carboxyl functions directly onto the surface via Si–C covalent bonds. This permits the use of hyrdosilylation reactions to modify the sensor surface. The use of this multilayer structure for the detection of hybridization events is discussed.