Researchers have produced a nano-sized hybrid of silver metal, a biomolecule and cadmium sulphide (CdS) with properties that could have wide-ranging application in imaging and medicine1.
The silver-adenine-templated CdS nanohybrid shows enhanced fuorescence properties making detection of single molecule easy. The combination of metal or semiconductor nanoparticles with biomolecules displays entirely new optical, electronic and photonic properties. This encouraging result led the researchers to synthesize biotemplated nanosized semiconductors and metal nanoparticles.
They produced colloidal silver nanoparticles and then made the nanohybrids by adding various amounts of colloidal silver to cadmium solution. The presence of silver modifies electronic transitions in CdS by introducing surface states of different energy.
The observation of an enhanced fluorescence response and fluorescence lifetime was recorded under specific experimental conditions upon excitation by light. The new nanohybrid provides an important tool to exploit these materials for photonic, molecular-recognition and sensor applications, the researchers say.
