Gold nanoparticles have a wide array of unique optical properties that make them desirable for use in many biological and medical applications such as targeted drug delivery, tumor imaging, and cancer therapeutics. The small size of gold nanoparticles engenders the characteristic optical properties that make them so fascinating. Nanoparticles can be functionalized using a variety of biological molecules such as proteins, DNA, and peptides. One polypeptide in particular, poly-L-lysine (PLL), is used here to functionalize gold nanorods via a Layer-by-Layer approach to explore how macromolecular structure on the surface impacts assembly. Previous work has shown that the protonation state of PLL causes a conformational transition that can be used to assemble PLL coated gold nanospheres. In this study, we are particularly interested in seeing if the pH driven conformational change of PLL causes gold nanorods to assemble in a chiral fashion which will be the monitored with circular dichroism and UV-Vis spectroscopy.

Using pH to drive assembly of poly-l-lysine coated gold nanorods

255th National Meeting (2018)

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