Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
10
-3
Cantilevers
10
-6
10
-6
Polymeric NPs
Magnetic NPs
10
-9
Gold NPs
Silver NPs
Quantum
dots
10
-9
Targets' size (m)
10
-9
10
-3
10
-6
Mycotoxins
Lipids
Peptides
Toxins
Prions
Fungi
Protozoa
Parasitic
worms
Viruses acteria
Figure 9.1
Size distribution of widely used nanosystems in comparison with the most
common types of infectious disease agents. A particular nanoparticle (represented by a
black horizontal dashed line) could interact differently with targets of various sizes, such
as peptides, toxins, viruses, and bacteria (blue, gray, green and orange dashed lines,
respectively). In this particular case, the nanoparticle has a size of 100 nm, whereas viru-
lence factors and disease markers are smaller (e.g. lipids, peptides, DNA, and toxins), and
pathogens can be of roughly equal (e.g. most viruses) or bigger size than the nanopar-
ticle (e.g. bacteria, fungi, etc.). Source:
Scheme 1 from Ref.
1
.
(For interpretation of the
references to color in this igure legend, the reader is the online version of this topic.)
commonly used in monitoring applications. The figure compares this to the
size of pathogens, showing how nanomaterials can be of similar size or even
smaller than the detection target to which they are applied.
Figure 9.2
shows
schematics representing the structure of different types of nanomaterial.
9.2.1. Gold nanoparticles
Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are a diverse group of nanomaterials ranging
in size from 5 to 110 nm, which can take a variety of different forms includ-
ing spheres, cubes, nanorods, and nanoribbons. The advantages of AuNPs
are their ability to resonantly scatter light, their high chemical stability, their
excellent conductivity, and their color change upon aggregation.
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