One-pot synthesis of biofunctional and near-infrared fluorescent gold nanodots and their application in Pb²⁺ sensing and tumor cell imaging

Abstract

Monodisperse and water-soluble Cys-Au dots with near-infrared emission successfully prepared by a one-pot synthesis approach, and the as-prepared Au dots could be used for long-term tumor cell imaging and highly selective detecting Pb2+.

Two-Photon Imaging of 3D Organization of Bimetallic AuAg Nanoclusters in DNA Matrix

“…Although there are many interesting reports about the application of gold nanoclusters as fluorescent probes in vitro and in vivo , − most of them concern mainly one-photon excitation properties of nanoclusters. On the other hand, two-photon luminescence microscopy (2PLM) has many advantages over traditional one-photon optical microscopy techniques such as possibility of high-resolution deep imaging even in highly scattering environments like living tissues, localized red or infrared excitation in small focal volume, and reduced phototoxicity and photobleaching.…”

Luminescent gold nanoclusters as biocompatible probes for optical imaging and theranostics

“…Furthermore, also emission lifetime of these GNDs is an order of magnitude greater than CdTe QDs one and two orders greater than common fluorophores, leading to a better applicability of GNCs for applications such as gated imaging. [25] Oh et al synthesized PEGylated GNCs by using PEG derivatives with a double thiolic function which provides a stronger bond between gold and the capping agent. COOH and PEG-NH 2 seemed to be unable to cross the cellular membrane, proving not only the strong effect of ligands, but also the of chemical functionalization, on whole GNCs behavior.…”

“…[24] Photoluminescence is one of the most attractive feature of GNCs. These NPs, in fact, recently attracted great attention thanks to their photochemical stability, [25] superior if M A N U S C R I P T A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 3 compared to common organic fluorophores, [26][27][28][29][30][31], tunable emission wavelength (figure 1) [32], satisfying luminescence quantum yield (QY) in the NIR and luminescence lifetimes in the microseconds range. [25,33] Despite the great interest, GNCs photophysical properties have not been completely interpreted yet, and only some general principles governing the phenomenon have been clarified.…”

“…GNCs formation reaction mechanism from ref [43]. Schematic illustration of the core-shell structure of a) GSH-Au25 NCs and b) BSAAu 25 NCs. c) UV-vis and d) DLS spectra of the as-prepared GSH-Au 25 NCs (black line) and BSA-Au 25 NCs (red line).…”

Chicken Egg White-stabilized Au Nanoclusters for Selective and Sensitive Detection of Hg(II)

“…Many reports have been reported that protein stabilized gold nanoclusters could be used to detect heavy metal ion such as Hg 2+ , Pb 2+ and Cu 2+ . 4,29,[40][41][42] However, Au NCs stabilized with different kinds of proteins would have different fluorescence responses to metal ions. In this paper, we tested a number of metal ions for their effect on CEW-Au NC emission by comparing their fluorescence quenching ratio, I0/I, the ratio of CEW-Au NCs fluorescence intensity at 620 nm before (I0) and after (I) interaction with metal ions.…”