Chemistry Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-4-2022
Journal
Journal of The Electrochemical Society
Volume
169
Issue
2
First Page
021501
URL with Digital Object Identifier
https://doi.org/10.1149/1945-7111/ac4bf8
Abstract
Gold nanoparticles are interesting for nanobiomedical applications, such as for drug delivery and as diagnostic imaging contrast agents. However, their stability and reactivity in-vivo are influenced by their surface properties and size. Here, we investigate the electrochemical oxidation of differently sized citrate-coated gold nanoparticles in the presence and absence of L-cysteine, a thiol-containing amino acid with high binding affinity to gold. We found that smaller sized (5, 10 nm) gold nanoparticles were significantly more susceptible to electrochemical L-cysteine interactions and/or L-cysteine-facilitated gold oxidation than larger (20, 50 nm) sized gold nanoparticles, both for the same mass and nominal surface area, under the conditions investigated (pH 7.4, room temperature, stagnant solutions, and scan rates of 0.5 to 450 mV s−1). The electrochemical measurements of drop-casted gold nanoparticle suspensions on paraffin-impregnated graphite electrodes were susceptible to the quality of the electrode. Increased cycling resulted in irreversible oxidation and detachment/oxidation of gold into solution. Our results suggest that L-cysteine-gold interactions are stronger for smaller nanoparticles.
Creative Commons License
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Citation of this paper:
Romanovskaia, Elena, Peter Slovenský, S. Marzieh Kalantarian, Lila Laundry-Mottiar, Valentin Romanovski, Maroš Halama, Michael Auinger, and Yolanda S. Hedberg. ‘Electrochemical Estimations of the Gold Nanoparticle Size Effect on Cysteine-Gold Oxidation’. Journal of The Electrochemical Society 169, no. 2 (1 February 2022): 021501. https://doi.org/10.1149/1945-7111/ac4bf8. © 2022 The Author(s)
Notes
© 2022 The Author(s)