Functionalized gold nanorod solution via reverse micelle based polyacrylate coating.

Functionalization of gold nanorods is a key issue for their biomedical application, and currently it is performed via either electrostatic interaction or thiol based strategy. We have developed a polyacrylate based coating chemistry for gold nanorods that can be used in deriving a variety of functional nanorods with high colloidal stability. The coating processes can introduce primary amines, fluorescein, or poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) on the nanorod surface in one step process. While fluorescein incorporation can produce fluorescent nanorods, primary amine groups can be used for further functionalization. Various functional nanorods have been successfully synthesized from these coated nanorods and used in different applications. Glucose and biotin functionalized nanorods are used for protein detection, and oleyl functionalized nanorods with fluorescein incorporated in the polymer shell are used for fluorescence based cell labeling.