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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Mar 1.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Chem. 2009 Sep 1;1(6):461–465. doi: 10.1038/nchem.334

Figure 1. Structural features of nanoparticles (NPs) and modes of sensor response.

Figure 1

(a) Chemical structures of cationic gold NPs. NP1 features primarily cationic charge, NP2 and NP4 feature groups capable of hydrophobic interaction, NP3 features groups capable of hydrogen bonding and NP5 has aromatic recognition unit capable of π-π interaction. (b) Schematic illustration of the competitive binding between protein and quenched GFP-NP complexes and protein aggregation leading to the fluorescence light-up or further quenching.