Stability and aggregation assays of nanoparticles in biological media

Abstract

Colloidal stability of nanoparticles in biological media is crucial to preserve their utility as aggregation often leads to undesirable biological response. A quantitative measurement of nanoparticles aggregation in solution would provide a valuable assessment of colloidal stability of bio-nano interfaces after surface functionalization. Here, we develop a quantitative technique based on optical absorption to assay the colloidal stability of plasmonic nanoparticles functionalized with different amphiphilic surface ligands in biologically relevant media. © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013.