Gold nanoparticles

Presently, gold nanoparticles are mainly used in biotechnology and biomedicine. Their optical absorption spectrum, affinity to thiol groups, and toxicological innocuousness are the main properties that predestine gold nanoparticles for diagnostical and therapeutical applications.

Among other things, these properties have been used to bond antibodies or specific receptor molecules to gold nanoparticles through covalent bonds. In in-vivo applications, gold nanoparticles can be used in picture-giving procedures for localisation as well as diagnosis, and hyperthermic treatment allows the targeted destruction of cells.

In in-vitro analysis, gold nanoparticles are used to locate viruses, bacteria or proteins because of the bonds they produce upon contact, which lead to the characteristic red colour in many rapid tests. This effect is already well known in pregnancy tests, cocaine tests or cancer tests.

Outside of medical technology, the deployment of gold nanoparticles in photovoltaics is a promising research field. Embedding gold nanoparticles in thin solar cells stimulates the plasmon resonance to increase solar energy conversion efficiencies.

Particular^® offers pure, non-agglomerated gold nanoparticles in water and other solvents. They can be provided with hydrodynamic diameters between 5 and 50 nm and, due to our production process, dispersed electrostatically stable in the colloid.

Examples from our nanoparticle catalogue
(price list as of September 15, 2011):

Particular not only offers gold colloids in their purest form but will also conjugate gold nanoparticles with your biomolecules as gold nanomarkers. Please contact us for details and quotes.