Anisotropic gold nanoparticles for sensor, protein conformation studies and sustained drug release (PhD)

Abstract

Anisotropic gold nanoparticle (GNP), because of the presence of different surface energies that arise from large fractions of edges, corners and vertices, has become increasingly important for various applications in the field of chemistry, physics, biology and material sciences. The focus of the present research work is mainly concerned with the use of anisotropic gold nanoparticles (GNP) for ultrasensitive detection of toxic heavy metal ions and small biomolecules and understanding the conformational changes of proteins while adsorbed onto the GNP surface to prevent several misfolding diseases. It has further been extended to a novel synthetic approach for ease drug loading and its delivery where the drug molecule directly loaded onto the synthesized GNP without using multistep surface functionalization processes. We have shown that the specific surface functionalization along with the anisotropic nature of GNP can enhance the sensing ability dramatically compared to spherical GNP.