Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 4, 2026

Synthesis of Near-Infrared Emitting Gold Nanoclusters for Biological Applications
Published on: March 22, 2020
Protamine-stabilized gold nanoclusters as a fluorescent nanoprobe for lead(II) via Pb(II)-Au(I) interaction
Yan-Qin Huang1, Li-Na Yang1, Yong-Sheng Wang2
1College of Public Health, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
The authors report on a one-pot approach for synthesizing highly fluorescent protamine-stabilized gold nanoclusters. These are shown to be a viable nanoprobe for selective and sensitive fluorometric determination of lead(II) via quenching of fluorescence via Pb(II)-Au(I) interaction. Under optimized conditions, fluorescence measured at excitation/emission peaks of 300/599 nm drops in the 80 nM-15 μM lead(II) concentration range. The detection limit is 24 nM, and relative standard deviations (for n = 11) at concentrations of 0.10, 4.0 and 15 μM are 1.6, 2.5 and 1.9%, respectively. The relative recoveries of added lead(II) in the water samples ranged from 97.9 ± 2.29% to 101.2 ± 1.83%. Graphical abstract Lead(II) ions are found to be able to selectively and sensitively quench the fluorescence of the protamine-gold nanoclusters (PRT-AuNCs). Thereby, an inexpensive, selective and sensitive lead(II) assay was established.
Related Concept Videos
Nuclear Stability
To hold positively charged protons together...
RNA Stability
Stability
The stability of an LTI system is determined by the roots of its characteristic equation, known as poles. A system is stable if it produces a bounded...
Phase-lead and Phase-lag Controllers
Stability of structures
Pole and System Stability
Simple poles are unique roots of the denominator polynomial. Each simple pole corresponds to a distinct solution to the system's characteristic equation, typically resulting in exponential decay terms in the system's...

