One step hydrothermal functionalization of gold nanoparticles with folic acid.

A new fundamental concept for one-step in-situ functionalization of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) with folic acid using hydrothermal treatment is described. Hydrothermal treatment has been tuned to increase the light emission from the pterin moiety of folic acid molecule, while retain its structure and functionality, thus providing a simple route to multimodal tags for a variety of in vitro and in vivo biomedical applications. Successful functionalization of GNPs with the biological ligand is confirmed by specific binding with anti-folic acid antibody.