Gold Graphene Nanocomposites Research Articles

Glucose oxidase complexed gold-graphene nanocomposite on a dielectric surface for glucose detection: a strategy for gestational diabetes mellitus.

BackgroundGestational diabetes mellitus is a commonly occurring metabolic disorder during pregnancy, affecting >4% of pregnant women. It is generally defined as the intolerance of glucose with the onset or initial diagnosis during pregnancy. This illness affects the placenta and poses a threat to the baby as it affects the supply of proper oxygen and nutrients.PurposeDue to the high percentage of affected pregnant women, it should be mandatory to evaluate glucose levels during pregnancy and there is a need for a continuous monitoring system.MethodsHerein, the investigators modified the interdigitated (di)electrodes (IDE) sensing surface to detect the glucose on covalently immobilized glucose oxidase (GOx) with the graphene. The characterization of graphene and gold nanoparticle (GNP) was performed by high-resolution microscopy.ResultsSensitivity was found to be 0.06 mg/mL and to enhance the detection, GOx was complexed with GNP. GNP-GOx was improved the sensitive detection twofold from 0.06 to 0.03 mg/mL, and it also displayed higher levels of current changes at all the concentrations of glucose that were tested. High-performance of the above IDE sensing system was attested by the specificity, reproducibility and higher sensitivity detections. Further, the linear regression analysis indicated the limit of detection to be between 0.02 and 0.03 mg/mL.ConclusionThis study demonstrated the potential strategy with nanocomposite for diagnosing gestational diabetes mellitus.

Fast steroid hormone metabolism assays with electrochemical liver microsomal bioreactor based on polydopamine encapsulated gold-graphene nanocomposite

The metabolites of steroid hormones catalyzed by cytochrome P450s (CYPs) play a significant role in carcinogenicity. Herein we report a facile electrochemical liver microsomal bioreactor based on the polydopamine encapsulated gold-graphene nanocomposite (PDA/Au@RGO) for the fast steroid hormone metabolism assays. In this work, human liver microsomes (HLMs) were directly attached on PDA/Au@RGO without any activation process. Besides, due to the high conductivity, large active areas and good biocompatibility of PDA/Au@RGO, the direct electron transfer of HLM with the rate constant (ks) of 8.9 s−1 was achieved and the bioactivity of membrane bound proteins in HLM was largely maintained. Compared with recombinant enzymes, the immobilized HLM displayed obviously lower apparent Michaelis-Menten constant (Kmapp) of 175 ± 20 μM. Through HPLC-MS and CYP-specific inhibition experiment, the electrode-driven catalytic behavior of HLM for the conversion of testosterone to 6βOHtestosterone was confirmed. Moreover, the constructed HLM bioreactor was also successfully applied to the metabolism of other two steroid hormones (estrone and progesterone). This work has immense significance in the design of practically viable HLM bioreactors for the toxicity analysis of steroid hormones and stereoselective metabolite synthesis.

Gold-graphene nanocomposites for sensing and biomedical applications.

Recent developments in materials science and nanotechnology have propelled the development of a plethora of materials with unique chemical and physical properties for biomedical applications. Graphitic nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes, fullerenes and, more recently, graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) have received a great deal of interest in this domain. Besides the exceptional physico-chemical features of these materials, another advantage is that they can be easily produced in good quantities. Moreover, the presence of abundant functional groups on their surface and good biocompatibility make them highly suitable for biomedical applications. Many research groups have utilized GO and rGO nanocargos to effectively deliver insoluble drugs, nucleic acids and other molecules into cells for bioimaging and therapeutic purposes. Gold nanostructures (Au NSs), on the other hand, have also attracted great attention owing to their applications in biomedical fields, organic catalysis, etc. Loading of GO and rGO sheets with Au NSs generates a new class of functional materials with improved properties and thus provides new opportunities in the use of such hybrid materials for catalytic biosensing and biomedical applications. This review article is aimed at providing an insight into the important features of gold-graphene nanocomposites, the current research activities related to the different synthetic routes to produce these nanocomposites, and their potential applications in sensing and biomedical therapy, notably photothermal therapy (PTT).

A green method to gold–graphene nanocomposite from cyclodextrin functionalized graphene for efficient non-enzymatic electrochemical sensing applications

Here, we report a new and green method of synthesis of gold nanoparticle functionalized graphene (Au–Gr) from β-cyclodextrin functionalized Gr (CD–Gr) with excellent electrochemical sensing properties.

Simultaneous determination of hydroquinone and catechol based on glassy carbon electrode modified with gold-graphene nanocomposite

We have synthesized a virtually monodisperse gold-graphene (Au-G) nanocomposite by a single-step chemical reduction method in aqueous dimethylformamide solution. The nanoparticles are homogenously distributed over graphene nanosheets. A glassy carbon electrode was modified with this nanocomposite and displayed high electrocatalytic activity and extraordinary electronic transport properties due to its large surface area. It enabled the simultaneous determination of hydroquinone (HQ) and catechol (CC) in acetate buffer solution of pH 4.5. Two pairs of well-defined, quasi-reversible redox peaks are obtained, one for HQ and its oxidized form, with a 43 mV separation of peak potentials (ΔEp), the other for CC and its oxidized form, with a ΔEp of 39 mV. Due to the large separation of oxidation peak potentials (102 mV), the concentrations of HQ and CC can be easily determined simultaneously. The oxidation peak currents for both HQ and CC increase linearly with the respective concentrations in the 1.0 μM to 0.1 mM concentration range, with the detection limits of 0.2 and 0.15 μM (S/N = 3), respectively. The modified electrode was successfully applied to the simultaneous determination of HQ and CC in spiked tap water, demonstrating that the Au-G nanocomposite may act as a high-performance sensing material in the selective detection of some environmental pollutants.

A new green, ascorbic acid-assisted method for versatile synthesis of Au–graphene hybrids as efficient surface-enhanced Raman scattering platforms

A new green method for the synthesis of reduced graphene oxide–gold nanoparticle (rGO–AuNP) hybrids in aqueous solution that exploits the ability of ascorbic acid (AA) to operate as an effective dual agent for both graphene oxide (GO) and gold ion reduction is reported. Through careful investigation of the production of rGO–AuNP hybrids stabilized with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), several versatile routes were devised with the aim of controlling the size, shape and distribution of AuNPs anchored onto the graphene sheets as well as the GO reduction. Particularly, when rGO is used as a platform for Au ion nucleation, a relative sparse distribution of AuNPs of size ranging from 20 nm to 50 nm is noticed. In contrast, when gold ions are added to the solution prior to any GO reduction, the density of large AuNPs is rather low relative to the uniformly packed small sized AuNPs (3–12 nm). The progress of GO reduction is explained by considering the contribution of the catalytic activity of AuNPs, besides the reducing activity of AA. Finally, a plausible mechanism for the nucleation and distribution of AuNPs onto the graphenic surface is assumed, highlighting the significance of oxygen moieties. The green method developed here is promising for the fabrication of gold–graphene nanocomposites with tunable surface “decoration”, suitable for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS).

Ultrasmall Gold Nanoparticles Anchored to Graphene and Enhanced Photothermal Effects by Laser Irradiation of Gold Nanostructures in Graphene Oxide Solutions

In this work we demonstrate the coupling of the photothermal effects of gold nanostructures of controlled size and shape with graphene oxide nanosheets dispersed in water. The enhanced photothermal effects can be tuned by controlling the shape and size of the gold nanostructures, which result in a remarkable increase in the heating efficiency of the laser-induced size reduction of gold nanostructures. The Raman spectra of the Au-graphene nanosheets provide direct evidence for the presence of more structural defects in the graphene lattice induced by laser irradiation of graphene oxide nanosheets in the presence of Au nanostructures. The large surface areas of the laser-reduced graphene oxide nanosheets with multiple defect sites and vacancies provide efficient nucleation sites for the ultrasmall gold nanoparticles with diameters of 2-4 nm to be anchored to the graphene surface. This defect filling mechanism decreases the mobility of the ultrasmall gold nanoparticles and, thus, stabilizes the particles against the Ostwald ripening process, which leads to a broad size distribution of the laser-size-reduced gold nanoparticles. The Au nanostructures/graphene oxide solutions and the ultrasmall gold-graphene nanocomposites are proposed as promising materials for photothermal therapy and for the efficient conversion of solar energy into usable heat for a variety of thermal, thermochemical, and thermomechanical applications.