Aggregated gold nanoparticles as photoactivators for the photopolymerization of proteins.

Photopolymerization of bovine serum albumin was carried out using reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by the irradiation of citrate-stabilized gold nanoparticles by a pulsed Nd:YAG laser. The ROS in this case, singlet oxygen (O), targets aromatic amino acids within the protein to induce photopolymerization or crosslinking. Other ROS, like the hydroxyl radical, can also form in solution and under high-energy irradiation.