Abstract
Artificial lipid membrane systems (e.g., liposome) have been developed to understand the fundamental behavior of lipids and their biological roles. Membrane surface–enhanced Raman spectroscopy (MSERS) is a powerful method to analyze the lipid membrane due to its high sensitivity. In this study, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were coated by the unsaturated phospholipids (1,2–dioleoyl–sn–glycero–3–phosphocholine) for analyzing their behaviors in the membranes. Raman enhancements were observed, in measurements with excitation by green laser (532 nm) and by red laser (785 nm). The enhancement factor analyses revealed that AgNP@lipid systems specifically enhanced the Raman peak at 1668 cm–1 (C ＝ C), thus the MSERS method using AgNPs can be an alternative analysis of biological membrane properties and functions.
