PEGylated Gold Nanoparticles with Interesting Plasmonic Properties Synthesized Using an Original, Rapid, and Easy-to-Implement Procedure

In this letter, we report a new, one-step, rapid, and easy-to-implement method for the synthesis of PEGylated gold nanoparticles (PEG-AuNPs) having a narrow size distribution and very interesting plasmonic properties. Unmodified polyethylene glycol molecules with a molecular weight of 1000 g/mole (P...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of nanomaterials 2018-01, Vol.2018 (2018), p.1-7
Main Authors: Stiufiuc, Rares, Stiufiuc, Gabriela, Berindan-Neagoe, Ioana, Moldovan, Cristian Silviu, Toma, Valentin, Moldovan, Alin Iulian, Nițică, Ștefan, Lucaciu, Constantin M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Doxorubicin
Gold
Methylene blue
Microwaves
Molecular weight
Nanomaterials
Nanoparticles
Polyethylene glycol
Properties (attributes)
Rhodamine 6G
Size distribution
Sodium hydroxide
Substrates
Synthesis
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In this letter, we report a new, one-step, rapid, and easy-to-implement method for the synthesis of PEGylated gold nanoparticles (PEG-AuNPs) having a narrow size distribution and very interesting plasmonic properties. Unmodified polyethylene glycol molecules with a molecular weight of 1000 g/mole (PEG1000) have been employed as reducing and capping agents for the synthesis of spherical gold nanoparticles having an average diameter of 35 nm, within a few minutes. The novelty of the herein proposed synthesis method consists in the fact that the synthesis takes place inside of a sealed bottle flask containing aqueous solutions of PEG1000, tetrachloroauric(III) acid (HAuCl4), and NaOH, placed in the center of a microwave oven, capable to provide a very uniform temperature environment. It turned out that, during the very short synthesis procedure (2 minutes), PEG 1000 suffers an oxidative transformation in such a manner that its terminal alcohol groups (-CH2-OH) are transformed in carboxylate ones (-COO−). The as-synthesized PEG-AuNPs possess very interesting plasmonic properties allowing the detection of different molecules by means of SER spectroscopy performed either in liquid droplets or on solid spots. As a consequence of their unique plasmonic properties, the SER spectra acquired using this new class of nanoparticles on different molecules of interest (methylene blue, rhodamine 6G, doxorubicin, and 5-fluorouracil) are highly reproducible, making them ideal candidates for further use as SERS substrates.
ISSN:1687-4110
1687-4129
DOI:10.1155/2018/5954028