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Interaction of Citrate-Capped Gold Nanoparticles with the Selected Amino Thiols for Sensing Applications

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, India Section B: Biological Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The amino thiols, methionine, cysteine, and homocysteine are considered to be important biomarkers for various diseases. In the present study, the authors have demonstrated that the interactions of synthesized citrate-capped gold nanoparticles with these amino thiols at different pH values can be used to develop simple colorimetric methods for their detection in aqueous solutions. The aggregation of the gold nanoparticles by interactions with the thiol group was found to depend strongly on the pH of the amino thiols. At pH 10, the detection of cysteine was possible in the presence of homocysteine at low concentration and similarly homocysteine could be detected in the presence of cysteine at low concentration by thiol-induced aggregation of the gold nanoparticles. Cysteine and methionine were specifically detected by monitoring the aggregation of the gold nanoparticles through the UV–Visible spectra at pH 7 and pH 10 respectively. The increase in the mean hydrodynamic diameter of the particles confirmed the thiol-induced aggregation of the particles both at pH 7 and pH 10. The specific pH-based interactions can form a basis to design simple colorimetric sensors for the amino thiols using as-synthesized citrate-capped gold nanoparticles without further functionalization.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge Sophisticated Instrumentation Centre, Chemistry Division, SAS, VIT University for providing the FT-IR facility for carrying out the present study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Nanobiotechnology, VIT University, Vellore, 632014, India

    A. Rajeshwari, Kunal Garg, M. Elavarasi, N. Chandrasekaran & Amitava Mukherjee

Authors
  1. A. Rajeshwari
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  2. Kunal Garg
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  3. M. Elavarasi
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  4. N. Chandrasekaran
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  5. Amitava Mukherjee
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Correspondence to Amitava Mukherjee.

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Rajeshwari, A., Garg, K., Elavarasi, M. et al. Interaction of Citrate-Capped Gold Nanoparticles with the Selected Amino Thiols for Sensing Applications. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., India, Sect. B Biol. Sci. 87, 23–30 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40011-015-0567-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40011-015-0567-0

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