Stability of a gold nanoparticle-DNA system in seawater.
We investigated the stability of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in seawater. The large amount of Na+, Mg2+, K+, and Ca2+ in seawater makes AuNPs unstable resulting in immediate aggregation. We found that AuNPs become much more stable when they were treated with polyethylene glycol (PEG, MW = 20, 000) before exposure to seawater. The AuNPs maintained stability up to 10 days when they were treated with 16.6% PEG 20000. The AuNP-DNA complex formed in the presence of 3.3% PEG 20000 maintained stability when exposed to seawater. We also demonstrated that the AuNP-DNA complexes can be redispersed after centrifugation and show sequence-specific aggregation in seawater. The results show that the both AuNPs and an AuNP-DNA system can be used in seawater and have the potential to be used to study marine systems.
School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology (SAINT), Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), Suwon 440-746, Korea.
Jun Hyuk
JH
Heo
Kyung-Il
KI
Kim
Min Hyung
MH
Lee
Jung Heon
JH
Lee
D001483:Base Sequence; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D004355:Drug Stability; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D008422:Materials Testing; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012623:Seawater / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*
D006046:Gold; D004247:DNA