Amino acids-conjugated gold, silver and their alloy nanoparticles: Role of surface chemistry and metal composition on peroxidase-like activity

摘要

Innovative strategies to fabricate nanomaterials with desired physicochemical features may open up new avenues to use nanomaterials for diverse biomedical applications. In this context, we demonstrate a green and single step synthesis method to obtain gold (Au), silver (Ag), and their Au-Ag alloy nanoparticles with precise composition and surface functionality control by employing tryptophan (Trp) and tyrosine (Tyr) amino acids. The presence of amino acid shell on the surface of metal nanoparticles allows these nanoparticles' surface to behave like enzymes. To validate our hypothesis, we carried out in-vitro studies and investigated peroxidase-like activity of these nanomaterials. It was observed that these nanoparticles have surface chemistry, composition, and temperature-dependent activities. This study opens up new prospects toward careful design of amino acid-functionalized nanomaterials, which has significant potential for a range of biomedical applications.