Assembly of functional gold nanoparticle on silica microsphere

• Methodology for gold nanoparticle on silica microsphere by an electrostatic-directed approach.
• Improved homogeneity and loading of gold on silica microsphere through control of surface properties.
• Binding and BSA-induced desorption of gold strongly correlated to molecular conjugation.

We demonstrate a controlled synthesis of silica microsphere with the surface-decorated functional gold nanoparticles. Surface of silica microsphere was modified by 3-aminopropypltriethoxysilane and 3-aminopropyldimethylethoxysilane to generate a positive electric field, by which the gold nanoparticles with the negative charges (unconjugated, thiolated polyethylene glycol functionalized with the traceable packing density and conformation) were able to be attracted to the silica microsphere. Results show that both the molecular conjugation on gold nanoparticle and the uniformity in the amino-silanization of silica microsphere influenced the loading and the homogeneity of gold nanoparticles on silica microsphere. The 3-aminopropyldimethylethoxysilane-functionalized silica microsphere provided an uniform field to attract gold nanoparticles. Increasing the ethanol content in aminosilane solution significantly improved the homogeneity and the loading of gold nanoparticles on the surface of silica microsphere. For the gold nanoparticle, increasing the molecular mass of polyethylene glycol yielded a greater homogeneity but a lower loading on silica microsphere. Bovine serum albumin induced the desorption of gold nanoparticles from silica microsphere, where the extent of desorption was suppressed by the presence of high-molecular mass polyethylene glycol on gold nanoparticles. This work provides the fundamental understanding for the synthesis of gold nanoparticle-silica microsphere constructs useful to the applications in chemo-radioactive therapeutics.

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