Noble metal nanostructures in optical biosensors: Basics, and their introduction to anti-doping detection.

Nanotechnology has illustrated significant potentials in biomolecular-sensing applications; particularly its introduction to anti-doping detection is of great importance. Illicit recreational drugs, substances that can be potentially abused, and drugs with dosage limitations according to the prohibited lists announced by the World Antidoping Agency (WADA) are becoming of increasing interest to forensic chemists. In this review, the theoretical principles of optical biosensors based on noble metal nanoparticles, and the transduction mechanism of commonly-applied plasmonic biosensors are covered.

Through-space electronic communication of zinc phthalocyanine with substituted [60]Fullerene bearing ONaza-crown macrocyclic ligands.

Two new macrocyclic ligands containing 17- and 19-membered ON-donor aza-crowns anchored to [60]Fullerene were synthesized and characterized by employing HPLC, electrospray ionization mass (ESI-MS), H and C NMR, UV-vis, IR spectroscopies, as well as powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) in solid state. TGA measurements revealed that upon linking each of these macrocycle rings to [60]Fullerene, the decomposition point measured for [60]Fullerene moiety was increased, indicating on the promoted stability of [60]Fullerene backbone during binding to these macrocyclic ligands. Moreover, the ground state non-covalent interactions of [60]Fullerene derivatives of ON (x=2, and 3) aza-crown macrocyclic ligands namely, L-L with zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) were also investigated by UV-vis absorption, steady state and time resolved fluorescence spectrophotometry in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP).