Polyethylenimine mediated synthesis of gold nanoparticles for biomedical applications

摘要

Conclusions: The present article demonstrates the synthesis of PEI-stabilized AuNPs through active participation of PEI and organic reducing agents like formaldehyde/acetaldehyde/tetrahydrofuran hydroperoxide/acetyl acetone. The process enable the rapid synthesis of PEI functionalized AuNPs within < 5 min through control over M.W. of PEI between 800 to 25 kD thus controlling the cytotoxicity in therapeutic applications together facilitating the PEI-based transfection. PEI-AuNPs shows excellent catalytic activity as peroxidase mimetic and enable glutathione sensing based on competitive interaction. In addition to that the process enable the the synthetic insertion of gold nanoparticles in mesoporous silica nanoparticles providing a robust framework in which two or more components can be incorporated to give multifunctional capabilities with specific loading of bioactive molecule leading selective drug delivery.