Synthesizing Bismuth Nanoparticles

Gold nanoparticles (AuNP) have become the face of modern medicine, with promising future applications as dual-purpose diagnostic and radiation therapy (theragnostic) agents. Contrarily, bismuth nanoparticles (BiNPs) have been proposed as a cost-efficient, biodegradable alternative to AuNPs. However, BiNP research is in its infancy. This proposal aims to develop methods for the size, shape-controlled, and neutral and positively charged synthesis of BiNPs with amphiphilic ligands. Overall, this project is to provide fundamental research into BiNP synthesis with therapeutically valuable ligands and to eventually see how BiNPs interact with biomolecules, as none have been studied with proteins