Enhanced plasmon resonance light scattering signals of colloidal gold resulted from its interactions with organic small molecules using captopril as an example

Gold nanoparticles are known for their plasmon resonance absorption (PRA) depending on their size. Our this investigation shows that plasma resonance light scattering (PRLS) signals in the corresponding PRA region could be measured using a common spectrofluorometer, and be enhanced when aggregation of gold nanoparticles occurs due to their interaction with organic small molecules (OSMs). Using captopril (Cap) as an example, we investigated the interactions of gold nanoparticles with OSMs in order to propose a general method of OSMs such as typical clinic organic drugs. In aqueous medium of pH 2.09, there are about 2.2 × 103 Cap molecules covalently binding to the surface of a 10-nm diameter gold nanoparticle through the thiol functional group of Cap, and thus forms a core-shell assembly of [(Au)31000]@[(Cap)2200], displaying strong enhanced PRLS signals in the PRA region of gold colloid. The PRLS intensities characterized at 553.0 nm were found to be proportional to the concentration of Cap over the range of 0.1–1.7 mg L−1 with the determination limit (3σ) of 32.0 μg L−1. With that, Cap in pharmaceutical preparations could be determined with the recovery of 97.0–104.5% and R.S.D. of less than 2.4%.