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Thiol‐Directed Synthesis of Highly Fluorescent Gold Clusters and Their Conversion into Stable Imaging Nanoprobes
Author(s) -
Palmal Sharbari,
Basiruddin SK,
Maity Amit Ranjan,
Ray Sekhar C.,
Jaikhil R.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201203083
Subject(s) - fluorescence , colloidal gold , thiol , nanotechnology , materials science , nanoparticle , quantum dot , chemistry , organic chemistry , optics , physics
Fluorescent gold clusters (FGCs) with tunable emission from blue to red and quantum yields in the range of 6–17 % have been synthesized by simple modification of the conditions used for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles, namely by replacing the stronger reducing agent with a controlled amount of thiol. Various functional FGCs with hydrodynamic diameters of 5–12 nm have been successfully synthesized and used as cell labels. The results of our investigations strongly indicate that FGCs composed of Au 0 are more stable imaging probes than commonly reported red/NIR‐emitting FGCs with a composition of Au 0 /Au I , as this combination rapidly transforms into nonfluorescent large clusters on exposure to light. The FGC‐based nanoprobes reported herein exhibit stable fluorescence upon continuous light exposure and can be used as imaging probes with low cytotoxicity.