Insight Into Interaction of Plasmonic Nanoparticles With Amino Acids

Abstract Amino acids are fundamental building block of proteins which are crucial macromolecule with diverse functionality in living system. So, understanding and harnessing interaction of nanomaterials with amino acids has implications in many technological areas such as nanomedicine, material science and nanotechnology. In this work we studied the interaction of plasmonic nanoparticles such as Au and Ag nanoparticles with amino acids. It was observed that Ag and Au nanoparticles make linear assembly of particles only with a particular amino acids. Au nanoparticles form linear assemblies with Cysteine. Ag nanoparticles form linear assemblies with Methionine and Aspartic acid. Further, it was observed that such chain like assemblies is not depended on size of the nanoparticles and bigger nanoparticles also show linear assemblies. The interaction of Au and Ag nanoparticles with Cysteine, Methionine and Aspartic acid were studied using Uv–visible spectrophotometer, Fourier Transformed Infra‐red spectrophotometer, Dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscopy and Isothermal Titration Calorimeter (ITC). FDTD simulation was carried out to simulate the electric field intensity of the Au and Ag nanoparticles when interaction with amino acids. A possible mechanism for the chain‐like assembly of these nanoparticles with specific amino acids is discussed in the paper, attributed to dipole‐dipole interactions. Such studies will shed more light on nano‐bio interfaces with implications in many technological areas.