ZnO-Nanorod processed PC-SET as the light-harvesting model for plasmontronic fluorescence Sensor

[Display omitted] •A low cost and simple structure based on plasmon coupled model is proposed as plasmontronic-fluorescence emission.•We developed a modified Jablonski diagram model with suitable mechanism in form of light harvest fluorescence aspects.•GNPs over ZnO supplies light harvest enhanced nature with corresponding energy transfer efficiency (ET %) and TRPL data.•An ascending trend of the relative lifetime was observed and distance dependent do not restricted the FRET model until 100 Å. This paper reports the combined plasmon coupled - surface energy transfer (PC-SET) and a distance-dependent model constructed by gold nanoparticles (GNPs) over zinc oxide nanorod (ZnO-NR) as a robust and tunable plasmontronic fluorescence regime for the detection of rhodamine 6G (R6G). Further, the deposition of metal created extraordinary contact through ZnO-NR utilizing a rapid thermal process (RTP) allowing the interaction of plasmon-coupled nature and surface energy transfer from the donor (R6G) to the acceptor (ZnO). The percentage of energy transfer efficiency continuously decreased with the increment of GNPs size, shown by 72.93, 67.52 and 47.86%, corresponding to the increase of the distance between the donor and acceptor of 63.03, 67.25, and 82.49 Å, respectively. In other words, the efficiency of PC-SET complied the 1/d4 distance dependence model between donor and acceptor molecules with the detection of long-distance ranges from 46.95 to 120 Å. These findings suggest that PC-SET process has a more realistic agreement with experimental outcomes and highly supports quenching efficiency impacts related to the size of GNPs, in which the smaller size of NPs causes’ greater effectiveness towards challenges in light harvest enhanced sensing system.