Ultrathin gold film deposited on human hair: Derivation from nanoparticles and applications as microsensors

An ultrathin film of gold was grafted on human hair by a chemical liquid deposition method under ambient conditions. The method consisted of the assembling of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) on the adsorptive sites of human hair as seeds and the growth of isolated GNP seeds into a continuous gold layer. The resulting gold film coated hair possessed good conductivity and flexibility, and can be used as a novel gold hair microelectrode (GHME). This electrode inherited some merits of both hair and gold nanoparticles, for instance, good mechanical property, excellent biocompatibility and high surface area. GHME was also proven to exhibit sensitive electrochemical responses toward dopamine and nitric oxide, foreseeing its promising applications in the fields of biomedical analysis.