title: Near infrared Ag/Au alloy nanoclusters: tunable photoluminescence and cellular imaging.
abstract: The fluorescent nanomaterials play an important role in cellular imaging. Although the synthesis of fluorescent metal nanoclusters (NCs) have been developing rapidly, there are many technical issues in preparing metal alloy NCs. Herein, we used a facile galvanic replacement reaction to prepare Ag/Au alloy NCs. The characterizations of UV, PL, HRTEM, EDX and XPS confirm one fact the Ag/Au alloy NCs are carried out. As-prepared Ag/Au alloy NCs display near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence centered at 716 nm and show tunable luminescence from visible red (614 nm) to NIR (716 nm) by controlling the experimental Ag/Au ratios. Moreover, as-prepared Ag/Au alloy NCs are protected by glutathione (GSH) whose some functional groups including thiol, carboxyl and amino groups make the as-prepared alloy NCs exhibit good dispersion in aqueous solution, high physiological stability and favorable biocompatibility. Together with NIR fluorescence, these advantages make alloy NCs be promising candidate in biological labeling.
authors.affiliation: China-Australia Joint Research Centre for Functional Molecular Materials, School of Chemical & Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, PR China. Electronic address: wangcx@jiangnan.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Chuanxi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, PR China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: School of Stomatology, Jilin University, Changchun 130041, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaowei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: China-Australia Joint Research Centre for Functional Molecular Materials, School of Chemical & Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, PR China.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: School of Stomatology, Jilin University, Changchun 130041, PR China.
authors.forename: Hongchen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, PR China. Electronic address: linquan@jlu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Quan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: China-Australia Joint Research Centre for Functional Molecular Materials, School of Chemical & Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, PR China.
authors.forename: Chi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000497:Alloys / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects; D005978:Glutathione / Q000737:chemistry; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D008027:Light; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D061848:Optical Imaging; D055668:Photochemical Processes; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry*; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D000497:Alloys; D012834:Silver; D006046:Gold; D005978:Glutathione
keywords: Ag/Au; Alloy nanoclusters; Cellular imaging; Near infrared nanomaterials; Tunable photoluminescence