Byeon J.H., Roberts J.T.
Purdue University, US
Keywords: aerosol based fabrication, gene transfection, thiol-capped gold nanoparticles
Thiol-capped Au nanoparticles can be used as sensitive probes of gas and vapor concentrations, as magnetic materials in data storage devices, for selective drug delivery, and for biomedical imaging.3 In this study, ambient-spark-produced-Au-nanoparticle-laden nitrogen gas was applied as the operation gas to atomize 1-hexanethiol diluted with ethanol in a collison atomizer. The Au nanoparticles were capped with the atomized droplets and their size distributions were measured for varying volumetric concentrations of 1-hexanethiol. By increasing the concentration from 0.1% to 1.0%, the size distribution of merged particles (Au-thiol) was changed from bimodal (showing the individual distributions of Au and thiol droplets) to unimodal (showing only a droplet-like distribution, with the Au distribution eliminated) configuration. This may have originated from the whole incorporation of the Au nanoparticles into droplet particles. Measurements of cell viability and transfection revealed that even though the merged particles had a higher cytotoxicity (~78% in cell viability > ~49% for polyethyleneimine, PEI) than that for chitosan (~96%) the transfection (2.56 × 10^6 in RLU mg-1) of gene was higher than those for chitosan (7.63 × 10^4) and PEI (6.84 × 10^5).
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 3, Nanotechnology 2012: Bio Sensors, Instruments, Medical, Environment and Energy (Volume 3)
Published: June 18, 2012
Pages: 94 - 97
Industry sectors: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing | Medical & Biotech
Topic: Biomaterials
ISBN: 978-1-4665-6276-9