Designing, synthesizing and controlling plasmonic metal nanostructures with a superhigh precision (nm or sub-nm precision) are of paramount importance for the reliable and widespread use of plasmonic nanostructures in optics, nanoscience, chemistry, materials science, energy and biotechnology. In particular, synthesizing plasmonic nanostructures, often with a nanogap, that can generate ultrastrong, controllable and quantifiable optical signals is the key to the practical use of plasmonic enhancement-based spectroscopies such as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), but has been highly challenging. Here, I will introduce the design, synthetic strategies and characterization of molecularly tunable and structurally reproducible plasmonically coupled and enhanced nanostructures (e.g., plasmonic nanogap structures) with strong, controllable and quantifiable plasmonic signals including SERS signals. I will then show their potential in addressing some of important challenges in plasmonics, biosensing, bioimaging and biocomputing including quantitative SERS and scalable DNA computing, and discuss how these new plasmonic materials and platforms can lead us to new breakthroughs in next-generation disease diagnostics including the liquid biopsies for early-stage cancers and infectious diseases.
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