Lighting up ultraviolet fluorescence from chicken albumen through plasmon resonance energy transfer of gold nanoparticles.

Au nanoparticles (AuNPs), which easily aggregate in organic thin film, are observed to well-disperse in chicken albumen thin films. The incorporated AuNPs is distributed uniformly inside the thin film and is as dense as 650 (particles/μm(3)). In addition, enhanced ultraviolet (UV) fluorescence centered at 350 nm is observed from the AuNPs-containing chicken albumen thin film. The enhancement is proposed to be originated from the plasmon resonance energy transfer (PRET) from the d-band absorption of AuNPs to the chicken albumen protein. The enhanced fluorescence is further verified by the shorter fluorescence lifetime from the time-resolved fluorescence spectra. These results indicate that d-band transition of AuNPs can be used to interface with other UV-emitting biomolecules. Results in this study demonstrate that AuNPs exhibit future potentials in applications for both the organic thin-film technology and nano-biotechnology.