Surface-based nanoplasmonic sensors for biointerfacial science applications

The design and application of surface-based nanoplasmonic sensors has spurred broad interest from the chemical science community, touching upon diverse topics such as plasmonics, nanoscience, surface chemistry, measurement analysis, and interfacial science. One of the most exciting areas involves taking advantage of the simple instrumental requirements and high surface sensitivity of these sensing devices to study biomacromolecules and biological nanoparticles. In this Account, we present a narrative summary describing our recent work to explore surface-based nanoplasmonic sensors for biointerfacial science applications and outlining our perspective on possible future directions. After introducing the basic design concepts and measurement principles behind surface-based nanoplasmonic sensors, we focus on critically discussing recent application examples from our laboratory, where the high surface sensitivity of surface-based nanoplasmonic sensors proved useful for studying lipid vesicles, supported lipid bilayers, virus-like particles, proteins, and peptides. The potential of integrating surface-based nanoplasmonic sensors with other surface-sensitive measurement techniques is also discussed. Looking forward, there is excellent potential to continue using surface-based nanoplasmonic sensors for biointerfacial science applications and numerous innovation opportunities exist from fundamental and applied perspectives.