Investigation of the Effect of Thiols on the Size of Nanoparticles

fields including biomedicine, carbohydrate – carbohydrate and carbohydrate – protein binding inclusive. These studies are relevant in the treatment of various illnesses such as asthma, atherosclerosis, cancer and arthritis where biological processes such as cell adhesion, signal transduction, host pathogen recognition and inflammation could be affected. Furthermore, the weak binding affinity between carbohydrates and proteins have made this difficult. In order to successfully carry out carbohydrate and protein binding studies, the carbohydrate moiety has to be presented multivalently. Gold nanoparticles functionalized with carbohydrates can be used to achieve this aim. Gold nanoparticles have been used to overcome this difficulty: these particles are negatively charged and globular presenting the carbohydrates multivalently, overcoming the weak binding affinity between carbohydrates and also between carbohydrates and proteins. In nanoparticle synthesis, size is of utmost importance depending on the purpose for which it is being made. For hydrophilic and lipophilic systems, the resulting forces acting on particles are a sum of the repulsive forces VR and the attractive forces VA. An electric double layer, ions of alternate charge formed around nanoparticles can confer stability to dispersion. There was marked increase in particle size using sodium sulphide (Na2S) as aggregating agent; Na2S containing the sulphide ion present in all thiols