Plasmonic thin-layer chromatography was developed for the separation of quantum dots (QDs) by combining plasmonic optical trapping with thin-layer chromatography (TLC). Photoexcitation of the localized surface plasmon resonance of Au nanoparticles immobilized on a TLC plate decreased the distance traveled by QDs, enabling size separation of QDs with identical compositions and sorting of QDs according to the optical properties of QDs with the same size. Optical property-based separation cannot be achieved by conventional chromatography, in which the interactions between stationary phases of chromatographs and QDs are simply based on the differences in the size or surface functionality of QDs.
- Tsukasa Torimoto
- Naoko Yamaguchi
- Yasuyuki Tsuboi
