Fluorescence enhancement of Ru(bpy) 2+ 3 by core-shell Ag@SiO2 nanocomposites

Enhancement of the light emission of dye molecules (Ru(bpy) 2d 3 ) was studied by coating dye-doped SiO2 layer on Ag core. The enhancement ratio was found to be relative to the thickness of dye-doped silica layer. The core-shell Ag@dye-SiO2 nanocomposites have the strongest fluorescence intensities when the thickness of dye-SiO2 layer was tuned to 10 nm. It was found that an 11-fold enhancement of fluorescence signal was realized with Ag@dye-SiO2 nanoparticles, compared to the sample without silver core. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.