We probed the interaction between Au38@BSA and various heavy metal ions using luminescence spectroscopy. Interestingly, Au38@BSA showed luminescence enhancement upon interaction with Cd2+ and Pb2+ at concentrations higher than 1 ppm, due to the formation of cluster aggregates. Such aggregates were detected by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and high resolution electron microscopy (HRTEM) studies. Luminescence enhancement of Au38@BSA in the presence of Cd2+ was due to the interaction of Cd2+ with the cluster core, while Pb2+-induced luminescence enhancement was due to BSA-Pb2+ interaction. Observations were further supported by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies. This kind of phenomenon has been observed in protein protected clusters for the first time. We believe that such metal-ion-induced luminescence enhancement can be used to synthesize cluster systems with enhanced optical properties and different ion-cluster interactions can be used to develop metal ion sensors using Au38@BSA. © 2019 American Chemical Society.

Pradeep Thalappil

Department Of Chemistry

Jyoti Sarita Mohanty

Kamalesh Chaudhari

Chennu Sudhakar

Aggregates

Dynamic light scattering

Gold

Heavy metals

High resolution electron microscopy

Metal ions

Optical properties

Proteins

X ray photoelectron spectroscopy

CLUSTER AGGREGATE

CLUSTER CORES

CLUSTER SYSTEMS

GOLD CLUSTERS

LUMINESCENCE ENHANCEMENTS

LUMINESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY

METAL ION SENSORS

X-RAY PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY STUDIES

Luminescence

IIT Madras is a public technical and research university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Founded in 1959, it is recognised as an Institute of National Importance.

IIT Madras has been ranked as the top engineering institute in India for four years in a row by the National Institutional Ranking Framework of the MHRD

It currently offers undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees across 16 disciplines in Engineering, Sciences, Humanities and Management. About 596 faculty belonging to science and engineering departments and centres of the Institute are engaged in teaching, research and industrial consultancy.

IIT Madras

Journal of Physical Chemistry C

In this paper is reported the synthesis and detailed mass spectrometric and spectroscopic characterization of highly luminescent Au and Ag clusters protected with mixed proteins. Taking advantage of the aggregation tendency of the protein, lysozyme (Lyz), an inter-protein conjugate was made from a physical mixture of two proteins, bovine serum albumin (BSA) and Lyz. Based on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry data, the new cluster is assigned as ∼Au<inf>36</inf>@BSA-Lyz. This specific system showed a very high red luminescence and the calculated quantum yield was 42% which is the highest to date for such cluster systems. A similar study on an Ag system showed the formation of ∼Ag<inf>35</inf>@BSA-Lyz when a similar metal and protein concentration was used. By varying the concentration of the Ag precursor, different compositions of the cluster protected by the mixed protein were achieved. Such a system with a high quantum yield can be used for various applications such as sensors for ultralow levels of analytes, fluorescent tags and for tracking biomolecules in real systems. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2015.

Fulltext

RSC Advances

Noble metal clusters protected with mixed proteins exhibit intense photoluminescence

Sub-nanometer-sized metal clusters, having dimensions between metal atoms and nanoparticles, have attracted tremendous attention in the recent past due to their unique physical and chemical properties. As properties of such materials depend strongly on size, development of synthetic routes that allows precise tuning of the cluster cores with high monodispersity and purity is an area of intense research. Such materials are also interesting owing to their wide variety of applications. Novel sensing strategies based on these materials are emerging. Owing to their extremely small size, low toxicity, and biocompatibility, they are widely studied for biomedical applications. Primary focus of this review is to provide an account of the recent advances in their applications in areas such as environment, energy, and biology. With further experimental and theoretical advances aimed at understanding their novel properties and solving challenges in their synthesis, an almost unlimited field of applications can be foreseen. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Particle and Particle Systems Characterization

Noble metal clusters: Applications in energy, environment, and biology

A discrete sequence of bare gold clusters of well-defined nuclearity, namely Au25+, Au38+ and Au 102+, formed in a process that starts from gold-bound adducts of the protein lysozyme, were detected in the gas phase. It is proposed that subsequent to laser desorption ionization, gold clusters form in the gas phase, with the protein serving as a confining growth environment that provides an effective reservoir for dissipation of the cluster aggregation and stabilization energy. First-principles calculations reveal that the growing gold clusters can be electronically stabilized in the protein environment, achieving electronic closed-shell structures as a result of bonding interactions with the protein. Calculations for a cluster with 38 gold atoms reveal that gold interaction with the protein results in breaking of the disulfide bonds of the cystine units, and that the binding of the cysteine residues to the cluster depletes the number of delocalized electrons in the cluster, resulting in opening of a super-atom electronic gap. This shell-closure stabilization mechanism confers enhanced stability to the gold clusters. Once formed as stable magic number aggregates in the protein growth medium, the gold clusters become detached from the protein template and are observed as bare Aun + (n=25, 38, and 102) clusters. Bare gold cluster ions of specific nuclearity are formed in the gas phase upon laser irradiation of protein-Au + adducts. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH &amp; Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

ChemPhysChem

Bare clusters derived from protein templates: Au25+, Au38+ and Au102+

Matrix assisted laser desorption ionization of a mixture of gold and palladium adducts of the protein lysozyme (Lyz) produces naked alloy clusters of the type Au24Pd+ in the gas phase. While a lysozyme-Au adduct forms Au18+, Au25+, Au 38+ and Au102+ ions in the gas phase, lysozyme-Pd alone does not form any analogous cluster. Addition of various transition metal ions (Ag+, Pt2+, Pd2+, Cu2+, Fe2+, Ni2+ and Cr3+) in the adducts contributes to drastic changes in the mass spectrum, but only palladium forms alloys in the gas phase. Besides alloy formation, palladium enhances the formation of specific single component clusters such as Au38 +. While other metal ions like Cu2+ help forming Au 25+ selectively, Fe2+ catalyzes the formation of Au25+ over all other clusters. Gas phase cluster formation occurs from protein adducts where Au is in the 1+ state while Pd is in the 2+ state. The creation of alloys in the gas phase is not affected whether a physical mixture of Au and Pd adducts or a Au and Pd co-adduct is used as the precursor. The formation of Au cores and AuPd alloy cores of the kind comparable to monolayer protected clusters implies that naked clusters themselves may be nucleated in solution. © 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Nanoscale

Noble metal alloy clusters in the gas phase derived from protein templates: Unusual recognition of palladium by gold

We report the synthesis of luminescent AuAg alloy quantum clusters (QCs) in bovine serum albumin (BSA), for the first time, with experimentally determined atomic composition. Mixing of the as-synthesized protein-protected Au and Ag clusters resulted in the formation of alloy AuAg clusters within the BSA. Mass spectrometric analysis of the product of a 1:1 molar ratio reaction mixture of Au<inf>QC</inf>@BSA and Ag<inf>QC</inf>@BSA suggested that the alloy clusters could be Au<inf>38-x</inf>Ag<inf>x</inf>@BSA. Further analyses by standard techniques revealed that the alloy cluster core of ∼1.2 nm diameter is composed of nearly zero valent Au and Ag atoms that exhibit distinctly different steady state and time resolved excited state luminescence profiles compared to the parent clusters. Tuning of the alloy composition was achieved by varying the molar ratio of the parent species in the reaction mixture and compositional changes were observed by mass spectrometry. In another approach, mixing of Au3+ ions with the as-synthesized Ag<inf>QC</inf>@BSA also resulted in the formation of alloy clusters through galvanic exchange reactions. We believe that alloy clusters with the combined properties of the constituents in versatile protein templates would have potential applications in the future. The work presents interesting aspects of the reactivity of the protein-protected clusters. © 2012 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Luminescent, bimetallic AuAg alloy quantum clusters in protein templates

Metal-Ion-Induced Luminescence Enhancement in Protein Protected Gold Clusters

Journal	Data powered by TypesetJournal of Physical Chemistry C
Publisher	Data powered by TypesetAmerican Chemical Society
ISSN	19327447
Open Access	No