title: Functionalized gold nanoparticle supported sensory mechanisms applied in detection of chemical and biological threat agents: a review.
abstract: There is a great necessity for development of novel sensory concepts supportive of smart sensing capabilities in defense and homeland security applications for detection of chemical and biological threat agents. A smart sensor is a detection device that can exhibit important features such as speed, sensitivity, selectivity, portability, and more importantly, simplicity in identifying a target analyte. Emerging nanomaterial based sensors, particularly those developed by utilizing functionalized gold nanoparticles (GNPs) as a sensing component potentially offer many desirable features needed for threat agent detection. The sensitiveness of physical properties expressed by GNPs, e.g. color, surface plasmon resonance, electrical conductivity and binding affinity are significantly enhanced when they are subjected to functionalization with an appropriate metal, organic or biomolecular functional groups. This sensitive nature of functionalized GNPs can be potentially exploited in the design of threat agent detection devices with smart sensing capabilities. In the presence of a target analyte (i.e., a chemical or biological threat agent) a change proportional to concentration of the analyte is observed, which can be measured either by colorimetric, fluorimetric, electrochemical or spectroscopic means. This article provides a review of how functionally modified gold colloids are applied in the detection of a broad range of threat agents, including radioactive substances, explosive compounds, chemical warfare agents, biotoxins, and biothreat pathogens through any of the four sensory means mentioned previously.
authors.affiliation: Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA. Upadhyayula.Venkata@epa.gov
authors.forename: Venkata K K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Upadhyayula
mesh_terms: D001688:Biological Products / Q000032:analysis*; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D002619:Chemical Warfare Agents / Q000032:analysis*; D003124:Colorimetry / Q000379:methods; D055664:Electrochemical Techniques / Q000379:methods; D005470:Fluorometry / Q000379:methods; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D017979:Gold Colloid / Q000737:chemistry; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000737:chemistry; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000379:methods; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products; D002619:Chemical Warfare Agents; D017979:Gold Colloid; D009930:Organic Chemicals; D006046:Gold