Enhancement of Raman Light Scattering in Dye-Labeled Rat Glioma Cells by Langmuir-Blodgett CNT-Bundles Arranged on Metal-Containing Conducting Polymer Film

TL;DR

This study demonstrates enhanced Raman scattering in dye-labeled rat glioma cells using a layered nanocomposite with CNT bundles on a metal-polymer film, enabling improved cell imaging.

Contribution

It introduces a novel layered nanocomposite with CNT bundles on a metal-polymer film for enhanced Raman imaging of living cells.

Findings

Raman scattering is significantly enhanced by surface plasmons.

MCNT-bundles quench PI fluorescence, aiding imaging.

The method enables visualization of cell membrane adhesion sites.

Abstract

We have fabricated layered nanocomposite consisting of a nanoporous anodic alumina sublayer (AOA), an ultrathin metal-containing polymer Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) film coating AOA, and multi-walled carbon nanotube (MCNT) - bundles which are arranged on the LB-film. MCNTs were preliminarily chemically modified by carboxyl groups and functionalized by stearic acid. We have experimentally observed an enhancement of Raman light scattering on surface plasmons in the LB-monolayers. This enhancement is due to charge and energy transfer. We demonstrate that propidium iodide (PI) fluorescence is quenched by the MCNT-bundles. A method of two-dimensional system imaging based on the MCNT-enhanced Raman spectroscopy has been proposed. This method has been applied to visualize focal adhesion sites on membranes of living PI-labeled rat glioma cells.