Interaction of metallic clusters with biologically active curcumin molecules

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Abstract We have investigated the interaction of subnano metallic Gd and Au clusters with curcumin, an important biomolecule having pharmacological activity. Gd clusters show different site preference to curcumin and much stronger interaction strength, in support of the successful synthesis of highly stable curcumin-coated Gd nanoparticles as reported recently. It can be attributed to significant charge transfer from the Gd cluster to curcumin together with a relatively strong hybridization of the Gd df-orbitals with curcumin p-orbitals. These results suggest that Gd nanoparticles can effectively be used as delivery carriers for curcumin at the cellular level for therapy and medical imaging applications