Aspect ratio dependent fluorescence quenching of eosin Y by gold nanorods

Gold nanorods of different aspect ratios had been synthesized using seed mediated growth method. The formed gold nanorods had been characterized by the absorption and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements. The obtained gold nanorods were used to study the quenched effect on fluorescence of Eosin Y. Experimental results revealed that Eosin Y molecules adsorbed on the metallic surfaces, suffering strong quenching of their fluorescence and the quenching efficiency was different for different aspect ratio. Using dielectric coated gold nanorods model, the probable mechanism of aspect ratio dependent quenching efficiency was obtained by numerical calculation based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer and quasi-static theory. The calculation results showed that the non-monotonic changing of fluorescence quenching was attributed to competing effects of aspect ratio and the dielectric constant of coated shell on surface plasmon resonance.