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Droplet-based Synthesis of Homogeneous Gold Nanoparticles for Enhancing HRP-based ELISA Signals

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Abstract

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have widely used for various biological applications, such as drug screening, photo-thermal therapy, and biosensing. In particular, the synthesis of AuNPs with narrow size distribution plays an important role in increasing the efficiency of nanoparticle-mediated biosensors. However, the conventional synthesis methods (e.g., citrate reduction method) still suffer from controlling the sizes of the nanoparticles. In this paper, we present the synthesis method of homogeneous AuNPs using a droplet-based microfluidic chip. Prior to experiments, we optimized the size of droplets using a simulation software for stable droplet generation. We demonstrated that the nanoparticles synthesized in our microfluidic chip system showed a narrower size distribution and a higher reproducibility compared to conventional batch synthesis. Furthermore, we observed that the signal of anti-horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was significantly enhanced by the droplet-based microfluidic chip. Therefore, our synthesis method of homogeneous AuNPs could play an important role in improving the efficiency of AuNPs-based sensing signals.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) (Grant number 2015M3D3A1A01064926, 2019M3A9H2032547). This research was supported by BioNano Health-Guard Research Center funded by the MSIT of Korea as Global Frontier Project (Grant number H-GUARD_2013M3A6B2078950 (2014M3A6B2060302).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sogang University, 35 Baekbeom-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, 04107, Republic of Korea

    Ji Wook Choi, Young Jae Kim, Jong Min Lee & Bong Geun Chung

  2. Division of Chemical Industry, Yeungnam University College, 170 Hyeonchung-ro, Nam-gu, Daegu, 42415, Republic of Korea

    Jong Min Lee

  3. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Sogang University, 35 Baekbeom-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, 04107, Republic of Korea

    Jin-Ha Choi & Jeong-Woo Choi

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  1. Ji Wook Choi
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Correspondence to Bong Geun Chung.

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Choi, J.W., Kim, Y.J., Lee, J.M. et al. Droplet-based Synthesis of Homogeneous Gold Nanoparticles for Enhancing HRP-based ELISA Signals. BioChip J 14, 298–307 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13206-020-4307-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13206-020-4307-z

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