Metal nanoparticles have generated great interest due to their excellent optical and chemical properties. The widely used chemical method for synthesising nanoparticles involves capping agents for colloidal stability. However, there are scarce reports on the application of metal nanoparticles synthesised without using capping agents. Hence, there is a need to develop pristine nanoparticles devoid of capping that can be used for translational research. Here, the authors developed a facile and rapid method for synthesising bare metal nanoparticles (platinum/silver/gold) that are chemically reactive and stable for a month upon storage. They synthesised bare metal nanoparticles of sub-15 nm and characterised using standard techniques (UV-VIS-NIR/DLS/zeta//TEM/XRD). They assessed the safety of the synthesised nanoparticles on the liver carcinoma cell line (HepG2). Bare gold and platinum nanoparticles were non-toxic in comparison to bare silver nanoparticles. Bare metal nanoparticles were also checked for metal detection wherein antimony, mercury and chromium were detected using bare gold and silver nanoparticles. The spectroscopic shifts of the nanoparticles when bound to metals resulted in blue and red shifting of the plasmon band, indicating the sensing of metals. These results show that bare metal nanoparticles have the potential to emerge as a promising candidate for biomedical and sensing applications.

中文翻译：

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裸等离子体金属纳米粒子：肝癌细胞系的合成、表征和体外毒性评估。

金属纳米粒子由于其优异的光学和化学性质引起了极大的兴趣。广泛使用的用于合成纳米颗粒的化学方法包括用于胶体稳定性的封端剂。然而，关于不使用封端剂合成的金属纳米粒子的应用报道很少。因此，需要开发可用于转化研究的无封端的原始纳米颗粒。在这里，作者开发了一种简便、快速的方法来合成裸金属纳米粒子（铂/银/金），这些纳米粒子在储存后一个月内具有化学反应性和稳定性。他们合成了亚 15 nm 的裸金属纳米颗粒，并使用标准技术 (UV-VIS-NIR/DLS/zeta//TEM/XRD) 进行了表征。他们评估了合成的纳米颗粒对肝癌细胞系 (HepG2) 的安全性。与裸银纳米颗粒相比，裸金和铂纳米颗粒是无毒的。还检查了裸金属纳米颗粒的金属检测，其中使用裸金和银纳米颗粒检测锑、汞和铬。纳米粒子与金属结合时的光谱变化导致等离子体带的蓝移和红移，表明金属的感应。这些结果表明，裸金属纳米粒子有可能成为生物医学和传感应用的有希望的候选者。使用裸金和银纳米粒子检测汞和铬。纳米粒子与金属结合时的光谱变化导致等离子体带的蓝移和红移，表明金属的感应。这些结果表明，裸金属纳米粒子有可能成为生物医学和传感应用的有希望的候选者。使用裸金和银纳米粒子检测汞和铬。纳米粒子与金属结合时的光谱变化导致等离子体带的蓝移和红移，表明金属的感应。这些结果表明，裸金属纳米粒子有可能成为生物医学和传感应用的有希望的候选者。