Researchers describe technique for enhancing dispersion stability of gold nanoparticles

A team led by researchers from Hokkaido University (Japan) has described their mixing of cyclic polyethylene glycol (c-PEG) with gold nanoparticles, which was observed to enhance the particles' dispersion stability, allowing their dispersion to be maintained through freezing, freeze-drying or heating. Due to their unique light-absorbing properties, metal nanoparticles, such as gold nanoparticles, have received much interest for a range of biomedical and optical applications, amongst others. In the context of cancer, for example, metal nanoparticles delivered to tumors could react to applied light and kill cancerous cells. However, a challenge associated with the use of metal nanoparticles for biomedical...