Issue 9, 2019

Development of a near infrared Au–Ag bimetallic nanocluster for ultrasensitive detection of toxic Pb2+ ions in vitro and inside cells

Abstract

Although the research activities pertaining to the synthesis of fluorescent noble metal nanoclusters (NCs) and their applications in biological optics have been growing, only limited information is available in the near IR (NIR) region. However, fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy in the NIR region offer significant advantages over UV and visible wavelengths. In this manuscript, we demonstrate bio-mineralized synthesis of stable Au–Ag bimetallic NCs with tunable NIR fluorescence using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a protein template. We also demonstrate its application in the detection of toxic heavy metal ions Pb2+in vitro and inside cells. The tunability of the fluorescence emission between 680 nm and 815 nm is achieved by systematically varying the ratio of Au and Ag in the composite NCs. The bimetallic NCs when interacting with Pb2+ offered a large increase in fluorescence intensity, which enabled sensitive detection of Pb2+. We determined a limit of detection (LOD) of 96 nM for the detection of Pb2+ under in vitro conditions, which is significantly less than the safe level in drinking water. Its applicability has also been demonstrated successfully in real water samples collected from local water bodies.

Graphical abstract: Development of a near infrared Au–Ag bimetallic nanocluster for ultrasensitive detection of toxic Pb2+ ions in vitro and inside cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
25 Jul 2019
Accepted
29 Jul 2019
First published
29 Jul 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale Adv., 2019,1, 3660-3669

Development of a near infrared Au–Ag bimetallic nanocluster for ultrasensitive detection of toxic Pb2+ ions in vitro and inside cells

A. Sannigrahi, S. Chowdhury, I. Nandi, D. Sanyal, S. Chall and K. Chattopadhyay, Nanoscale Adv., 2019, 1, 3660 DOI: 10.1039/C9NA00459A

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