Recently, great efforts of thiolate-protected gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) have been devoted to the exploration of the potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications of such as biological analysis, biological imaging, therapeutic applications because of the high stability, the targeting ability by the surface modification, and the low toxicity, besides the unique physio-chemical properties. One of the therapeutic applications is a photosensitized generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) via Au NCs as a photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy. Previously, we reported effects of size and ligand species on the 1O2 generation for thiolate-protected Au NCs . As for organic photosensitizers, there are extensive studies on the strategy to improve the 1O2 generation efficiency. Incorporation of heavy atoms into molecular structures is one of the most widely used approaches to improve the 1O2 generation of organic photosensitizers. More recently, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics of organic photosensitizers have emerged as enhanced fluorescence and efficient photosensitizing characteristics because of the inhibition of energy dissipation through non-radiative pass. This motivates us to develop more efficient Au NC- photosensitizer by metal doping and AIE characteristics for therapy application.In this study, we invesitigated effects of metal-doping and AIE characteristic on singlet oxygen generation for glutathione-protected Au NCs. To the best of our knowledge, this is first work that silver-doping and AIE characteristic both enhance the 1O2 generation of the Au NCs. The AIE accelerating AuAg bimetallic nanoclusters developed in this study have been successfully used to photodynamic therapy application.

Aggregation/self-assembled approach for efficient AuAg bimetallic nanocluster-based photosensitizers

256th National Meeting (2018)

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