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Preparation of plasmonic vesicles from amphiphilic gold nanocrystals grafted with polymer brushes

Nature Protocols volume 11, pages 2287–2299 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Gold nanovesicles contain multiple nanocrystals within a polymeric coating. The strong plasmonic coupling between adjacent nanoparticles in their vesicular shell makes ultrasensitive biosensing and bioimaging possible. In our laboratory, multifunctional plasmonic vesicles are assembled from amphiphilic gold nanocrystals (such as gold nanoparticles and gold nanorods) coated with mixed hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymer brushes or amphiphilic diblock co-polymer brushes. To fulfill the different requirements of biomedical applications, different polymers that are either pH=responsive, photoactive or biodegradable can be used to form the hydrophobic brush, while the hydrophilicity is maintained by polyethylene glycol (PEG). This protocol covers the preparation, surface functionalization and self-assembly of amphiphilic gold nanocrystals grafted covalently with polymer brushes. The protocol can be completed within 2 d. The preparation of amphiphilic gold nanocrystals, coated with amphiphilic diblock polymer brushes using a 'grafting to' method or mixed hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymer brushes using tandem 'grafting to' and 'grafting from' methods, is described. We also provide detailed procedures for the preparation and characterization of pH-responsive plasmonic gold nanovesicles from amphiphilic gold nanocrystals using a film-rehydration method that can be completed within ∼3 d.

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Figure 1: Schematic illustration of the synthesis of amphiphilic gold nanocrystals grafted with polymer brushes.
Figure 2: Experimental setup for the preparation of amphiphilic gold nanoparticles.
Figure 3: Characterization of amphiphilic gold nanoparticles.
Figure 4: Characterization of amphiphilic gold nanorods.
Figure 5
Figure 6: Self-assembly of vesicular structures.
Figure 7: Characterization of gold nanovesicles.
Figure 8: Characterization of AuNR@PEG/PLA vesicles.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the intramural research program (IRP) of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation of China (grant 81401465 to P. Huang).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Molecular Imaging and Nanomedicine, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), US National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, USA

    Jibin Song & Xiaoyuan Chen

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Guangdong Key Laboratory for Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, School of Medicine, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China

    Peng Huang

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  1. Jibin Song
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Contributions

J.S. and X.C. conceived and designed the research; J.S. performed the experiments and contributed new reagents and analytical tools; J.S. and P.H. analyzed the data; and J.S. and X.C. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xiaoyuan Chen.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Song, J., Huang, P. & Chen, X. Preparation of plasmonic vesicles from amphiphilic gold nanocrystals grafted with polymer brushes. Nat Protoc 11, 2287–2299 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2016.137

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