Hard and soft coatings on gold nanoparticles at the nano-bio interface

This dissertation explores surface chemistry of gold nanoparticles, with a special focus in developing analytical methods to decipher the environment of small molecule ligands and biomolecule coronas at the molecular level. Chapter 1 introduces the physical and chemical properties of gold nanoparticles and recent advancement on elucidating the surface chemistry and protein corona formation of gold nanorods. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 probe nanoparticle systems at the molecular level with NMR techniques. Chapter 2 details the development of a solution NMR based approach, including chemical shift analysis, ligand density analysis, and T2 relaxation analysis, to explore the environment of a small molecule thiol ligand on gold nanospheres and gold nanorods. In Chapter 3, functional groups that are associated with the fluorescence origin and photobleaching of various carbon dot samples are identified by NMR spectroscopy. Chapter 4 describes how the silica porosity, silica thickness and ligand thickness impact the thermal reshaping behavior of silica coated gold nanorods. Chapter 5 explores the driven intermolecular forces in protein corona formation and the orientation of the protein corona on gold nanoparticles by an adapted BCA assay and limited proteolysis.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Chemistry

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2020

Author dc:creator

• Wu, Meng

Contributors dc:contributor

• Murphy, Catherine J.
• Chan, Jefferson
• Leal, Cecilia
• Lu, Yi

• Gold nanoparticles, NMR, ligand environment, protein corona.

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2020 Meng Wu

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108149

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/108149